LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






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i!Nrii;n status of amkhk a. 



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BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. 

Prussian Schools through American Eyes. 

Clot!:!.. 0-<K7-o. I'jp. OX. $1.00. 



SFECIMlElNr TKSTIiyEONlALS. 

This printed report is before us, and proves that Mr. Parsons has made him- 
self thoroughly familiar with our system of elementary instruction. * * It 
will be readily seen from what has been said that Mr. Parsons is a warm friend of 
our schools, which he has examined with the eye of a practical schoolman, hop- 
ing that the information which he has gained will be useful in New York. As 
County School Commissioner he learned the needs of American schools, and his 
study of the Prussian system of instruction has enabled him to suggest the reme- 
dies. We are much pleased by the just recognition of the ability, faithfulness, 
and disinterestedness of the German teacher, and trust that this scholarly report 
will find a wide circle of appreciative readers.— Translated from KatJiolische 
Zeitschrift fur Erziehung und UnterricM, Dmseld&rf, 1891. 

The report deals only with elementary education, and is of special worth 
because of the particularity with which he describes the system in use. The 
rigid and uniform practice in Prussia makes this possible, since the observer is 
not bothered by too much freedom of exercise on the part of the teacher. Seeing 
one school he sees aW.— Atlantic Montlily, Aug., 1891. 

There is much that is instructive and worth the earnest consideration of our 
State Legislatures and our teachers of youth in Mr. James Russell Parsons's 
"Prussian Schools through American Eyes." The Prussian elementary school 
system is the oldest, and is generally admitted to be the best in Europe ; Mr. 
Parsons shows pretty conclusively in his admirable report the marked inferiori- 
ties of the New York elementary system in comparison with it. The great 
advantages of the Prussian system are secured by legislation insuring a full and 
regular attendance of the children of school age ; definite uniform qualifications 
for supervising officers as well as teachers ; an approximate equalization of local 
taxation for school purposes ; State supervision of instruction given in private 
schools and families. In these particulars the schools not only of New York but 
many other States are deficient ; more particularly is this so in the matter of 
uniform qualifications for supervising officers, many of whom are sadly in need of 
an elementary course themselves.— iVew Englmid Magazine, June, 1891. 

Mr. Parsons is to be congratulated on having compiled this painstaking 
statement, and Mr. Bardeen on having rescued it from the undeserved obscurity 
of an official publication. The teacher who wishes to know exactly what the 
much praised Prussian elementary schools do, and on what their excellence 
depends, will find it set forth here compactly and clearly. The New York reader 
will have the additional benefit of frequent comparisons between Prussian educa- 
tional details and those of his own State. All those wise persons who are sure 
that America can work out its own pedagogic salvation without learning from the 
experience of any other nation, especially Germany, should not read this book. 
It might disturb their equanimity. — Educational Remeic, June, 1891. 

Mr. Parsons was school commissioner of Rensselaer County, from 1885 to 
1888, when he was made U. S. consul at Aix-la-Chappelle. During his residence 
there he enjoyed special facilities and opportunities for information regarding the 
Prussian school system, and his report gives a detailed description of the plan of 
organization and the operation of the schools, which is here presented in a more 
compact form than any other which is available to American readers. The work 
is divided into seventeen chapters, wherein the reader follows the would-be ele- 
mentary teacher through the different grades to the normal schools and the final 
examination. These chapters give a clear statement of just what the Prussian 
schools are doing, and will enable educators to see their strong points and discern 
what is weak in our system. — New Engla.nd Journal of Education, May 21, 1891. 



<J^^^. 



; .t^ c 



FRENCH SCHOOLS 



THROBGH AMERICAN EIES 



A Report to the New York State Department 
of Public Instruction 



— BY- 



JAMES RUSSELL PARSONS, JR., 

INSPECTOR OF TEACHERS' CLASSES, AND FORMERLY U. S. 
CONSUL AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (AACHEN) 




SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 

C. W. BAHDEEN, PUBLISHER 

1893 



Copyright, 1892, by C. W. BARDEEN 



l.^ft 



PREFACE 



This account of the French elementary school system was pre- 
pared at the request of the Honorable Andrew S. Draper, Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction for the State of New York, and 
appears in the thirty-eighth annual report, transmitted to the Legis- 
lature Jan. 20, 1892. 

The following extract from Superintendent Draper's report 
explains itself : — 

Comparisons of our own school system with those of other States or of 
foreign countries are interesting and instructive, and afford us some means of 
determining the wisdom of our efforts to provide the best possible educational 
advantages for the children of the State. Something can be gained from the 
study of the official foreign reports, much more by actual visitation of foreign 
schools and contact with their school officers and teachers. 

In 1889, a commission appointed to make inquiry and report to the Legis- 
lature of Pennsylvania published an exhaustive report on the condition of in- 
dustrial education in this country and in Europe. 

In 1884, the New York Legislature considered, but did not pass a bill pro- 
viding for the creation of a commission to examine the school system in this State 
and of such other States and countries as might be deemed expedient and 
necessary. The commission was to report such changes in the school system of 
the State as were deemed wise, and $8,000 were to be appropriated for salaries 
and expenses of the three commissioners. 

Commissions, if composed of persons thoroughly fitted for the work, must 
of necessity involve considerable expense. In the absence of legislation in this 
direction, the Department has been fortunate in obtaining, virtually without cost 
to the State, comprehensive and detailed descriptions of the plan of organiza- 
tion and of the operations of school systems in foreign coimtries. 

The report submitted in 1891 contained a well considered account of Prus- 
sian elementary schools, which has attracted much attention in educational 
circles throughout the country. It was prepared, at my request, by J. Russell 
Parsons, Jr., A. M., school commissioner in Rensselaer county from 1885 to 1888, 
and student of European school systems and United States Consul at Aix-la- 
Chapelle from 1888 to 1891. 

The present report is accompanied by a scholarly paper on primary instruc- 
tion in France (Appendix, Exhibit No. 4), which was also prepared, at my 
request, by Mr. Parsons, now one of the inspectors of teachers' training classes. 

Mr. Parsons visited France during the last summer for the purpose of study- 
ing the French school system. His report is surprising in the clearness and per- 
spicuity of its statements as well as in its completeness and comprehensiveness, 
and affords us valuable aid in determining our own procedure. 

These two papers give a clear idea of the educational systems of the two 
leading countries of Europe which pay the closest attention to elementary 
schools. In the consideration of subjects connected with the schools of New 
York and in the statistics presented in this report, frequent occasion is found for 
reference to the organization and operations of the Prussian and French elemen- 
tary schools, as they prove convenient and instructive standards of comparison. 

I may add of this what I said of the German report of last year, 
that it is altogether the clearest statement that has ever appeared in 
English of Just what these schools are doing. 

Syracuse, Fel. S, 1892. C. W. BARDEEN. 



PRIMARY INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preface 7-9 

Introduction 9-11 

First Chapter. 
Political organization 11-13 

Second Chapter. 
Establishments for primary instruction 13-15 

Third Chapter, 
General develoijment 15-19 

Fourth Chapter. 

Population of France (not including Algeria) 19-22 

"' School population 20-22 

Density of population 22 

Fifth Chapter. 

Number and division of institutions for primary iostruotion 23-26 

Ecoles maternelles 23 

Lower and upper primary schools 23 

Division of public primary schools 23 

Division of private primary schools 23 

Condition of schools 24 

Classes ". 24-26 

Ecoles maternelles 24 

Lower and upper primary schools 24-26 

yJZeachers 26 

Ecoles maternelles 26 

Lower and upper primary schools 26 

Ratio between teachers and pupils 26 

Sixth Chapter. "^ 

:^tatistics relating to the preparation of teachers 27-28 

Males 27 

Females 27 ' 

Facilities for professional training 27. 28 

Teachers' examinations 28 



Seventh Chapter. page. 

Statistics relating to inspection 28, 29 

Cost of primary inspection 29 

Eighth Chapter. 

Statistics relating to auxiliary institutions 30-33 

Classes of adults 30 

School libraries 30, 31 

Pedagogic libraries 31 

School savings banks 31, 32 

Caisses des ecoles 32 

Musee pedagogique 32, 33 

Miscellaneous 33 

Ninth Chapter. 
Statistics showing the condition of primary instruction in Algeria 33 

Tenth Chapter. 
^ Private schools 31-35 

Eleventh Chapter. 
Establishment and maintenance of public schools 35-37 

Twelfth Chapter. 
Inspection 38-41 

Regulation of inspection 41 

Thirteenth Chapter. 
Teachers' conferences 41, 42 

Fourteenth Chapter. 
The teaching force 42-52 

General certificates 42-46 

Special certificates 46-50 

Classes of teachers — Penalties and recompenses 50-52 

Fifteenth Chapter. 
■J Compulsory education 52-58 

Commissions scolaires 53, 54 

Certificate of primary studies 54, 55 

Other provisions of the compulsory education law 56-58 

Sixteenth Chapter. 

Expenses of public primary instruction and salaries 58-63 

Salaries 60-63 

Observations 63 



5 

Seventeenth Chapter. page. 

Military service 63, 64 

Observations 64 

Eighteenth Chapter. 
Pensions 64, 65 

Nineteenth Chapter. 

ificoles maternelles and classes enfantines 65-77 

General organization 65-67 

Pedagogic organization 67-72 

Construction and furniture of ecoles maternelles 72-77 

General conditions 72, 73 

Exercise halls 73, 74 

Court, kitchen and play-ground 74 

Privies 74, 75 

Lodgings 75 

Furniture 75, 76 

Covered court 76 

Supplies 77 

Observation 77 

Twentieth Chapter. 

Lower primary schools 77-111 

General and pedagogic organization 77-87 

Division of the course of study in lower primary schools 87-92 

Physical education 87, 88 

Intellectual education 88, 89 

Moral education 90-92, 

Construction and furniture of lower primary schools 92-97 

General conditions 92, 93 

Lodgings of the concierge 93 

Cloak-rooms — Halls — Stairways 93, 94 

Class 94, 95 

Salle for drawing — Workshop for manual training 95 

Covered court (preau) — Dependencies of the preau — Gymnasium — 95 

Playground — Garden 95 

Privies and urinals — Vaults 96 

Lodgings of teacher — Lodgings of assistant teachers 96 

Furniture and teaching supplies 96, 97 

Official programs of instruction in lower primary schools 98-109 

Physical education 98, 99 



6 

PAOfii. 

Intellectual education 100-106 

Moral education 106-109 

Time-tables in lower primary schools 110, 111 

Twenty-first Chapter. 

Upper primary schools and cours compl6mentaires Ill 121 

OlVicial programs of instruction in upper primary schools and cours 

complomeutaires 113-121 

Physical education and preparation for professional apprentice- 
ship 113, lU 

Intellectual education lU-120 

Moral education 121 , 121 

Twenty-second Chapter. 

Schools for industrial and commercial training 121, 123 

Industrial schools and classes 121 

Commercial schools and classes 122 

Observation 122, 123 

Twenty-third Chapter. 
Primary normal schools 123-135 

x^ Students 124, 125 

Course of study in primary normal schools 126-135 

Normal schools for males 127-134 

Normal schools for females 134, 135 



V 



Conclusion 135, 136 



PRIMARY INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE. 



" L'objet de renselgnement primaire n'e8t pas d'embrasser sur les diverses matifires 
auxquelles il touche tout ce qu'll est possible de savoir, mals de bien apprendre dans 
ohacune d'elles ce qu'il n'est pas permis d'ierDorer." — Qbeabd. 



PREFACE. 

The belief that everythiDg" American is perfect constitutes a 
form of false patriotism which seems to be growing in this 
country, particularly in the field of journalism. There is a 
large and increasing class of men who can not bear an adverse 
opinion touching anything American "without falling into those 
hysterics of holy horror, which are the usual refuge of ignorance and 
stupidity." If we are to realize, however, the promise of becoming 
the greatest nation in the world, we must cultivate the power of 
discrimination. We must learn to reject that which is bad; to 
adopt and perfect that which is good wherever it may be found. 
" The true greatness of a people," said M. Victor Cousin in 1833, 
" does not consist in borrowing nothing from others, but in bor- 
rowing from all whatever is good, and in perfecting whatever it 
appropriates." 

There is no branch of the public service in which this power of 
discrimination is more needed than in primary instruction. France 
has succeeded in assimilating all that is good in the systems of 
elementary education of other countries without destroying the 
unity of her national character. What France has done, New York 
can and should do. 

The problem of the French and Prussian teacher is to accomplish 
a fixed amount of work in a set time with a given number of 
children between fixed ages, who must attend school regularly. 
What is the problem confronting the New York teacher? To 
accomplish an indefinite amount of work in an indefinite time with 
an indefinite number of pupils between five and twenty-one years 
of age, who attend school when they feel disposed to do so. Com- 
pared with this, the secrets of perpetual motion and of the squaring 
of the circle are as nothing. 

Whatever may be the opinions as regards secondary and higher 
education, the extent to which they should be gratuitous, t he fields 
into which they should be carried by the State, almost all civilized 



people are imanimoiis in recognizing" the universal necessity of an 
elementary education in those schools which represent the body of 
the nation. In order to make good and intelligent citizens, a 
minimum of school work is essential, and the most enlightened 
have now settled on the joeriod of seven or eight years for its 
accomplishment. 

As stated last year in my report on Prussian elementary schools, 
it would be most unjust to make an assertion that no good elemen- 
tary school work is done in New York State. I have visited many 
schools in countries of the old world as well as in New York, and 
have never seen better elementary schools than the best schools 
here at home. More than this, I am aware that there are many 
schools to-day in obscure corners of my own countj^, or hidden 
among the hills of the school commissioner districts, which no 
thoughtful person can visit without being most favorably impressed 
by the faithful, conscientious and efficient work of the teachers. 
Working for very small salaries, struggling against the disadvan- 
tages of irregular attendance and a short school year, it is marvelous 
what these teachers accomplish. 

But it is in vain that New York State goes on expending more 
and more each year for educational purposes. Without legislation 
insuring a full and regular attendance of the children from six to 
thirteen or fourteen years of age ; without a minimum of qualifica- 
tions for supervising officers as well as teachers ; without an approx- 
imate equalization of local taxation for school purposes : without 
State supervision of instruction given in private schools and in 
families, we shall never attain anything approaching the uniform 
excellence of the work done in Prussian and French elementary 
schools. 

The material for this report was taken from many sources. The 
principal references are to — 

1. Nouveau Code de I'lnstruction primaire. Pichard, Paris, 1890. 

2. Anuuaire de I'lnstruction publique et des Beaux-arts. Delalain, Paris, 1891. 

3. Les Traitements, le Classement, I'Avancement. Martel, Paris, 1890. 

4. Elements de Morale. Joly, Paris, 1887. 

5. Statistique de I'Enseignemeat primaire. Ministere de I'lnstruction publique et 

des Beaux-arts, Paris, 1889. 

6. Quelques Mots sur I'lnstruction publique en France. Breal, Paris, 1885. 

7. Nouveaux Programmes des Eeoles primaires avec Divisions mensuelles et Emplois 

du Temps. Paris, 1889. 

8. Manuel gent5ral de I'lnstruction primaire, Journal hebdomadaire. Hachetto, 

Paris, 1891. 

9. Revue international de I'Enseignement. Colin, Paris, 1891. 

10. Le Patriote. Bourde, Paris. 1888. 

11. Travail manuel. Faivre, Paris, 1887. 

12. La Leoion de Dessin dans les Kcoles primaires et les Classes ^l^mentaires do 

I'Enseignement secondaire. Leprat, Paris, 1889. 



9 

Throng-hout France there is at the present time a fermentation of 
thought in matters pertaining- to public education. This is particu- 
larly true in cities and larg-e centers of population. In speaking- of 
the expense of public education in Paris, Albert Shaw says : 

" Probably no other city in the world secures equally advantageous results from the 
outlay upon schools. Under the compulsory education act the attendance of children in 
elementary schools has actually been made almost universal. But Paris does not stop 
with elementary education in reading, writing and numbers. It maintains a marvelous 
system of industrial and trade schools for both sexes, in which almost everything that 
pertains to the production and trafiSc of Paris is taught and encouraged. American 
and English visitors at the exposition of 1889, will remember the remarkable display of 
the Paris industrial schools, especially in lines of decorative manufacture and art. It 
is in these schools that Parisian dressmakers, milliners, artiflcial-flower makers, furni- 
ture designers, house decorators, skilled workers in metals, and handicraftsmen in 
scores of lines of industry are educated to do the things that keep Paris prosperous 
and rich. It is public money wisely spent that maintains such an educational system. 
I need not refer to the higher schools of science, of classics and literature, of engi- 
neering and of fine art. All the flowers of civilization are encouraged by the Paris 
municipality. The yea,rly expenditure of a moderate but regular sum for the promo- 
tion of fine arts, by means of the purchase, under a competitive system, of designs for 
public statues, of pictures and mural designs for schools and various public buildings, 
and of other artistic works, not only educates the popular taste and adds to the adorn- 
ment and beauty of the city, but helps to keep Paris the art center of the world, and 
thus to maintain what, from the economic point of view, is one of the chief and most 
profitable industries of Paris. The mercantile schools that train so many thousands 
of women as well as men in book-keeping and penmanship are also an admirable 
investment." 

We turn now to the special consideration of what has been called 
the most complete national system ever devised, of compulsory, 
g-ratuitous and secular public education. 

Introduction, 

History teaches us that after g-reat wars, and especially disastrous 
wars, public attention turns toward education. August 10, 1807, 
William III, King- of Prussia, said : " The State must regain in 
intellectual force what it has lost in physical force." Men like 
Humboldt, Fichte and Stein were not wanting, and the result was 
the reorganization of national education, substantially completed in 
1813. 

The story of France from the close of the Franco-Prussian war 
is another striking- illustration of this fact. For more than half a 
century the attention of the French people had been directed to 
the defects in their system of education. Strong men had devoted 
their lives to remedy these defects, and yet comparatively little was 
accomplished until France had been conquered by Prussia and her 
very existence was threatened. 

The study of public education in France is particularly interest- 
ing to Americans. The laws, measures and methods, adopted by 
2 



10 

a sister republic to insure tiie requisite training- for good and 
intelligent citizens, are not looked upon so suspiciously as those 
enforced under more despotic forms of g-overnment. 

The documents setting forth the condition of public education 
in France are remarkable for precision, clearness and brevity. A 
study of the new code of primary instruction {Nouvemc Code de 
r Instruction Primaire par A. E. Pichard, 1890), will convince the 
New Yorker that our code should be thoroughly revised. It is a 
brave man, indeed, who has courag-e enough to venture an opinion 
on school matters in New York. Statutes are often contradictory 
and we are in almost as bad a condition as the Prussians who have 
no code of public instruction at all, but are forced to depend on a 
few general laws and many local decrees. The French system of 
primary instruction, however, is so clearly set forth in the code 
that it is very easy to understand. As a consequence there is much 
less contention than in New York, and a great saving of time and 
money. 

The object of this report is to state as clearly and as concisely as 
possible just what the French system of primary instruction is, and 
the results which are accomplished under this system. 

As in my report on Prussian elementary schools, an attempt is 
made to state clearly and concisely the minimum of work required 
of each healthy French child, and the provisions by which the 
accomplishment of this work is secured. The reader follows the 
would-be teacher through the Kindergarten {ecole maternelle), the 
lower and upper primary schools, the normal school, and the final 
examinations. 

In France as in Prussia primary instruction is secured by the 
State against all casualties. It is uniform and invariable, because 
the primary schools represent the body of the nation and are 
destined to nomish and to strengthen the national unity. Compul 
sory education laws necessitate a full and regular attendance of the 
children of school age. Official courses of study fix the work to be 
accomplished in each of the diflerent grades of schools. Teaching 
is elevated to the dignity of a profession and the tenure of office is 
secure. The State is most generous in supporting schools in poor 
and thinly populated districts. Trained teachers are found in rural 
as well as in city districts and the school year is at least forty weeks 
in length. The State supervises the instruction of children of school 
age in private schools and families, insisting on definite qualifica- 
tions for private instructors. A minimum of qualifications is estab- 
lished for all teachers and inspectors of schools. Special teachers 



11 

must hold the certificate of capacity for their particular lines of 
work. 

These in brief are the principal advantages of the French ele- 
mentary school system. New York elementary schools will never 
compare favorably with those of France without similar provisions. 
Since 1871 the standard of work done in French elementary schools 
has advanced with a rapidity which is without a j)arallel in the his- 
tory of education, and which would seem entirely incredible to those 
not familiar with the tremendous sacrifices the Republic has made 
since the war. 

Careful readers of the courses of study contained in this report 
will criticise the methods pursued in certain subjects. As a whole, 
however, these courses of study offer many interesting- and valuable 
suggestions, particularly in the line of practical work. 

FIRST CHAPTER. 
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 

France is divided into ninety departments (including the three 
departments of Algeria). Each department is subdivided into 
arrondissements, these into cantons, and the cantons into communes. 

At the head of public instruction stands the minister {Ministre de 
V Instruction publique et des Beaux-arts). Next to him come the 
director of higher education, the director of secondary education, 
and the director of primary education. These officers are assisted 
by inspectors general, assigned by the minister to certain depart- 
ments at the beginning of each year. 

The general administration is materially aided by the higher 
council {conseil superieur), a dignified body composed of the leading 
educators of France, which assembles twice a year under the minister 
as chairman. The minister has power to call extra sessions. 

The members of the higher council are appointed for four years. 
Nine councilors, apjjointed by the president of the republic, and 
six designated by the minister from the elected members, constitute 
the permanent section of the council. This permanent section 
meets every week and advises concerning courses of study and regu- 
lations ; the creation, transformation and suppression of schools and 
colleges ; text-books and books for libraries and prizes which are to 
be rejected by public schools ; finally, all questions of instruction, 
administration and discipline suggested by the minister. 

The whole council comprises sixty members, more than thirty of 
whom are professors and representatives of various educational 
institutions, chosen by their colleagues. Six, connected with 
primary education, are elected by the officers of primary education. 



12 

Four, connected with private instruction, are appointed by the 
president on the recommendation of the minister. Five are mem- 
bers of the institute and are elected by the institute.* 

The higher council advises concerning- courses of study, methods 
of instruction and modes of examination, and regulations, already 
deliberated on in the permanent section ; regulations relative to the 
supervision of public schools ; text-books, books for general read- 
ing and prizes, which should be rejected by public schools as contrary 
to morals, the constitution and the laws ; rules relating to foreigners 
demanding an authorization to teach or open or direct a school. 

The higher council is the court of last resort in the case of judg- 
ments rendered by the academic councils on matters of contention 
and discipline. It is also the final court of appeal from decisions of 
department councils in the case of expulsion of teachers. 

A glance at the Annuaire de I' Instruction puhlique for 1891 will 
establish the fact that the most distinguished of French educators 
are members of this higher council. 

Turning now from the general administration to the departments, 
we find these grouped into seventeen districts (including Algeria), 
called academies. The Academic de Paris includes nine depart- 
ments, that of Chambery only two ; the rest range from three to eight. 

At the head of the academic stands the rector, who is aided by 
the academic council {conseil academique), composed of secondary 
school ofiicials of the several departments, members elected by their 
colleagues, and six members appointed by the minister. 

An academy inspector {inspecteur d'academie) is placed over 
each department. He is assisted by the inspectors of primary 
instruction, and by the department council (conseil departemental). 

The department council is a council of primary instruction, under 
the prefect f as president and the academy inspector as vice- 
president. The members are fourteen % in number, including four 
councilors general elected by their colleagues ; the director of the 
normal school for males, the directress of the normal school for 
females ; two male and two female teachers elected by the public 
school teachers {titulaires) of the department from among the 
directors or directresses of schools or from retired male or female 
teachers ; two inspectors of primary instruction appointed by the 
minister. In cases of contention and discipline touching private 

*T\ie Institut de France comprises the -4cad^mje /ranfaise; des Inscriptions et Belles- 
lettres; des Sciences ; des Beaux-arts ; des Sciences morales et politiques. Each of the five 
divisions meets once a weelc. Of the five members of the Conseil supt'rieur, one is chosen 
from each of the five divisions at a general session. 

t The prefect (prefet) is the chief executive officer of a department. 

+ Increased in the Departcment de la Seine. 



13 

schools, two members, one from the clergy, the other from the laity, 
are elected by their respective colleagues. 

Members of the department council are elected for three years. 
They receive no salary except traveling- expenses in certain cases. 
The council meets four times a year, but special sessions may be 
called by the prefect. The meetings are not public. A majority of 
the members constitute a quorum. 

The department council supervises the carrying out of courses of 
study, methods of instruction and rules, prescribed by the higher 
council, including the arrangements for medical supervision • 
deliberates touching the reports and propositions of the academy 
inspector ; advises concerning reforms deemed necessary in the plan 
of instruction ; discusses annually the general report of the academy 
inspector on the condition and needs of the public schools and on 
the condition of private schools ; authorizes several communes to 
unite for the establishment and maintenance of a school ; establishes 
schools with the approval of the minister, and determines their 
number, nature and location ; may delegate to one-third of its mem- 
bers the right to inspect iinblic and private schools ; may authorize 
a male teacher to direct a mixed school ; advises as to the number 
of pupils normal schools may receive ; draws up rules for the public 
Scales maternelles ; makes the list of teachers eligible to full instal- 
ment {tit'ulaires) ; draws up rules for upper primary schools ; advises 
touching the removal of directors and teachers of upper primary 
schools and schools of manual training; judges opposition made to the 
opening of private schools ; authorizes private schools to receive chil- 
dren of both sexes ; pronounces sentence in disciplinary cases ; advises 
touching the authorization of foreigners to teach ; fixes the number 
of assistant teachers Avith the approbation of the minister; deter- 
mines the number of pupils and teachers in private boarding 
schools. 

SECOND CHAPTER. 

ESTABLISHMENTS FOE PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 

Primary instruction is given : 

1. In Kindergarten {ecoles maternelles) and infant classes {classes 
enfant ines). 

The ecoles maternelles are Kindergarten for children of both sexes 
from 2 to 6 years of age.* 

* These motherly schools are similar to, though not exactly the same as the German 
Kindergarten. As the name indicates, they are planned to follow the form of training 
adopted by an intelligent and devoted mother. 



14 

The classes enfantines, annexed to a lower primary school or to a 
Kindergarten, are for children of both sexes from 4 to 7 years of 
ag-e. These infant classes form the mean between the Kindergarten 
and the primary school. 

2. In the lower primary schools {ecoles primaires elementaires). 
The lower primary schools are open to children from 6 to 13 

years of age. No pupil may be admitted before the age of 6 
years, if there exist in the community at a convenient distance 
a public ecole maternelle ; before the age of 7 years, if there exist a 
public classe enfant ine. 

3. In the upper primary schools {ecoles primaires supe^Heures), 
and in the complementary courses {cours complementaires) annexed 
to the elementary schools. 

The upper primary schools and the complementary courses receive 
only those children who have gained the certificate of primary 
studies {certificat d' etudes primaires, page 54), 

4. In the schools of manual training {ecoles mamtelles d'apprentis- 
sage), as defined by the law of December 11, 1880. 

The schools of manual training are designed to develop technical 
aptitude and to complete from a special point of view the instruc- 
tion of the elementary schools. They receive children holding the 
certificate of primary studies or aged at least 13 years. By decree 
of July 28, 1888, no child under 12 may be admitted. The course 
of study covers at least three years. 

5. In classes of adults and apprentices. These classes are not 
permitted to receive pupils under 13 years of age. They are never 
mixed classes. The instruction given is practical with special 
reference to the trades. 

All establishments for primary instruction may be either public, 
tlint is founded and maintained by the State, the department and 
the communes, or private, that is founded and maintained by private 
individuals or associations. 

Teachers and directors of public or private schools must be of 
French birth, and must meet the conditions of age and capacity 
fixed by law. Naturalized citizens may be authorized by the min- 
ister with the advice of the department council to teach in private 
schools, but all teachers in public schools must be of French birth. 

Instruction is given by males in boys' schools ; by females in 
girls' schools, in Kindergarten, in infant classes, and in mixed 
schools. The wife, sister, or near relative of the director of a boys' 
school may teach as an assistant in said school. The department 



15 

council may also permit a male to direct a mixed school on condition 
that he be assisted by an instructress in needlework. 

No instructor under 18, and no instructress under 17, is permitted 
to teach in a primary school of any degree. The director of a 
school below the upper primary school must have attained the age 
of 21 years. The director of an upper primary school or of a school 
receiving- boarders must be at least 25 years of age. 

Article 17 of the law of October 30, 1886, confines all grades of 
public instruction to the laity. At the same time certain provisions 
were made for the gradual execution of the law. In boys' schools, 
five years were allowed for its complete accomplishment. In girls' 
schools no limit was set. A glance at the statistics will show what 
has been done toward the secularization of public instruction 
(page 16). 

All French public elementary schools are entirely free. Books, 
paper, ink and school supplies generally are gratuitous. More than 
this, the children of indigent parents are furnished with warm food 
in winter, with shoes and with clothing. In Prussia, public primary 
instruction is now practically gratuitous,* but books and school 
supplies are furnished only to the children of the poor, who are also 
supplied with food and clothing that they may be enabled to attend 
the schools. 



THIRD CHAPTER. 
GENEEAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Every five years since 1877 the ministry of public instruction has 
published a detailed report of the condition of primary instruction 
in France. This period of five years is chosen to correspond with 
the enumeration of the inhabitants, which takes place once in five 
years. 

The latest report, published in 1889 {Statistiqite de V Enseignement 
primaire — Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1889), is based on the 

* " Der § 4 des Gesetzes gestattet von der an die Spifze eestellten grundsatzlichen 
Kegel, dass die Erhebung eines Schulgeldes bei Volksschulen fortan nicht stattflndet, 
zwei Ausnahmen, indem er 

1. die Zulnssigkeit der Erhebung von Schulgeld fur solche Kinder, welche innerhalb 
des Bezirks der von ihnen besuchten Scbule nicht einheimiseh sind, 

2. im Uebrlgen aber die Erhebung von Schulgeld nur einstweilen coch gestattet und 
zwar nur insoweit. als das gegenwartig bestehende Schulgeld durch den Staatsbeitrag 
nicht gedeckt wird."— Ausfilhrungsanweisung zum Gesetz vom 1^. Juni 1888. See al«o 
Article II of Law of March 31, 1889 and subsequent decrees. 



16 

census of May 30, 1886, and shows great progress since 1882, the 
date of the previous report. The statistics contained in this report 
are the latest available. A report based on the census of 1891 will 
not appear in all probability before 1893. 

In obedience to the law of "Aug'ust 9, 1879, seven normal schools 
for males and forty for females were established in France between 
1882 and 1887.* At the close of 1887 there were 172 normal schools, 
of which 90 were for males and 82 for females. 

The law of October 80, 1886, has caused a corresponding develop- 
ment in the upper primary schools. In 1887 these schools were 302 
in number. Including the 431 cours comjpUmentaires, upper prim- 
ary instruction embraced 1,600 teachers and 38,000 pupils. 

At the present time public opinion directs that instruction given 
in these upper primary schools be in the line of professional and 
industrial training. Proper advantages must be provided for the 
training of good workmen in agriculture, industry and commerce. 
The proof of this is found in the courses of study of these schools 
as well as in the establishment of the three great national technical 
schools of Armentieres, Vierzon and Fb/ron.f 

In 1882, there were in France (not including Algeria), 75,635 
upper and lower primary schools ; in 1887, there were 80,209, an 
increase of 3,711 public and of 863 private schools. 

The number of confessional public primary schools was reduced 
through the new law from 11,265 to 9,097. The number of public 
primary schools under lay direction increased from 51,732 to 57,611. 
On the other hand the number of confessional private schools 
increased within this period from 8,160 to 9,565, while the private 
schools under lay direction decreased from 1,478 to 3,936. 

In 1882, France had 5,052 motherly schools {ecole.s n alter nellcs), 
which number was increased to 5,882 in 1887. These schools 
received 644,384 pupils in 1882, and 741,224 in 1887. 

* A partial parallel is found in Prussia where twenty-four new normal schools were 
established between 1870 and 1876. 

tBy law of December 11, 1880, and by decree of March 17, 1888, the e'raZf.s manuelles 
(Capprfnt'iHSiagc and the upper primary schools with technical courses were placed 
under the double authority of the minister of public instruction and the minister of 
commerce and industry. Up to November, 1888, only the three great technical schools 
referred to above and a few special technical schools such a« those at Ilouloone-sur-Mer, 
Rouen. Havre, Reims. Valrv'as, Aire-snr-Adoiir and Bar-anr- Heine had come under this 
double regime. The statistics here given include only the upper primary schools 
under the sole authority of the minister of public instruction. 



17 

The total number of primary teachers in 1882, inchiding the ecoles 
maternelles, was 132,536. In 1887 this total was increased to 145,668, 
of whom 103,008 were public and 42,660 private teachers. 

The percentag-e of lay teachers in public jDrimary schools was 
seventy-seven in 1882 and eighty-four in 1887. 

The total number of primary pupils registered in 1882, not 
including the ecoles maternelles, was 5,341,211. In 1887, this total 
was 5,526,365. The public schools under lay direction gained 
294,786, while the confessional public schools lost 209,474. At the 
same time the private secular schools lost 43,537, and the private 
confessional schools gained 143,379. 

But the ministry of public instruction is not satisfied with figures 
based on registration alone. In order to substantiate these figures, 
the actual attendance in the public primary schools throughout 
the Republic was taken three times within this period of five years, 
on a fixed day. The results on December 4, 1886, and June 4, 1887, 
showed an actual attendance of 91 perjcent and 88 per cent respect- 
ively, of the total registration for December and June. 

The law of June 1, 1878, touching the Caisse des ecoles, has 
increased very materially the amount of capital invested in school 
property. The hundred five and one-half millions of dollars devoted 
between 1878 and 1888 to the construction, repair and equipment 
of school buildings, represents a sacrifice for which posterity will 
be grateful. Indeed, the large number of substantial public school 
buildings now furnishes a material proof of the definite establish- 
ment of national instruction, which had been so long in a precarious 
condition. 

In 1882 the current expenditures for public primary instruction 
were $26,757,888. In 1887 the amount was increased to $34,580,103.* 
Of this total, $7,600,000 were expended voluntarily by the com- 
munes for the development and amelioration of school facilities. 

The following table shows the current expenditures for public 
primary instruction from 1882 to 1888 : 

18H2 $'6,757,888 

1883 27,001,811 

1884 28,330,465 

1886* ■ 34,120,974 

1886* 34,051,229 

1887* 34,580,103 



* Including contributions by communes for sundry expenditures of which no record 
was kept preyious to 1885. This fact should be borne in mind in making comparisons. 

3 



18 

Of the $34,580,103 expended in 1887, the communes paid 40.6 
per cent, the departments 10.6 per cent, and the State 48.8 per 
cent. 

Deducting- the communal expenses {depenses diverses communales) 
of which no records were kept prior to 1885, the percentages from 
the three sources for 1887 were 28.1, 12.4 and 59.5 respectively. 

The relative increase in State aid since 1855 is shown in the 
foUowinsr table : 





Com- 
munes. 


Depart- 
ments. 


State. 


1855 


64.8 
68.1 
57.4 
20.5 
28.1 


18.3 
16.6 
18.0 
13.3 
12.4 


16.9 


1867 


15.3 


1877 


24.6 


1882 


66.2 


1887 


69.5 







The facts which merit attention are the great changes in 1882, 
caused by the law making primary instruction gratuitous and by 
other new laws, and the increase in the effort made by the com- 
munes in 1887. 

The current expenditure of $34,580,103 represented an outlay of 
eighty-nine cents j9er caput of population * in 1887, or eight dollars 
and three cents for each pupil enrolled in December in the public 
schools, including the ecoles maternelles (4,306,100). 

It is not to be overlooked, however, that the annual current 
expenditures do not include the $105,517,290 devoted by the Caisse 
des ecoles between June 1, 1878, and December 31, 1887, to the con- 
struction, repair and equipment of primary schools, or the loan of 
$1,554,313 granted the departments by the State for the construction 
of normal schools, f 

Of the $105,517,290 referred to in the preceding paragraph, 58.41 
per cent was borne by the communes, 2.62 per cent by the depart- 



* " Population de la France, 38,218,903 et population europeenne et israt'Ute de VAlgerie 
464,767 = 38,683,670."— jinnimire statistique de la France, 1888. 

t " Dulerjuin 1878 au 31 d^cemhre 1887, la Caisse des ecoles a dtpense pour constructions, 
reparations, ameublements une somme {de'pense effectue'e ou engage'e) de 527 millions et demi 
I sans compter les engagements pris par VEtat envers les departements pour constructions 
d' ecoles nor males) " Statistique de V enseiqnement primaire. 



19 

ments and 38.97 per cent by the State ; $91,415,694 were expended 
between June 1, 1878, and June 20, 1885, and $14,101,596 between . 
June 28, 1885, and December 31, 1887. 

Under the law, communes with no available funds to provide and 
maintain suitable schools must secure a loan from the State payable 
in from thirty to forty years. Inasmuch as several generations are 
to profit by these extraordinary expenses, they are not included in 
the annual current expenditures. This fact must not be forg-otten 
in estimating- the total cost of public primary instruction. 

If we divide into ten equal portions the extraordinary expenses 
for construction, repair and equipment between 1878 and 1888, and 
add one portion or $10,707,160 to the current expenditure for 1887, 
the grrand total for public primary education in 1887 is $45,287,263, 
which represents an outlay of one dollar and seventeen cents per 
caput of population.* 

In every group of 1,000 primary schools, 832 are public and 168 
are private. Assuming that the costs for each pupil in public and 
private schools are equal, the expenditures for private instruction 
were about $10,600,000 in 1887. On this basis, public and private 
primary instruction cost $55,887,263 in 1887, which represents an 
outlay of one dollar and forty-four cents per caput of population. 



rOUETH CHAPTEE. 
POPULATION OF FEANCE. 

{Not including Algeria.) 

The census of December, 1881, gave France a domiciled popula- 
tion of 37,672,048, and a present population of 37,405,290. The 
corresponding figures for the census of May, 30, 1886, were 38,218,903 
and 37,930,759 respectively.f 

It will be seen that the rate of increase is less than that of most 
European countries. 

* Eighty-six per cent of the total public current expenditure in 1887 was for primary 
instruction. Secondary and higher instruction are now making rapid progress in 
France. More than $23,000,000 have been expended in buildings, repairs and equipments 
since 1877, the State bearing about half the burden. 

t The domiciled population (population doinicilide) is the legal population. The present 
population {population prt'^enti') is made up of those who were actually present in the 
various communes on the night of May 29-39, 18§9, 



20 



Everywhere the population now tends to grouj) itself into the 

cities and large villages. In France the slow rate of increase in 

the population complicates this situation. The rural districts are 

depopulated, and there is difficulty in securing- laborers to till the 

soil. 

School Population. 

The school population is divided into four groups according to 
age, as shown in the following table : 



( 
From 2 to 6 -! 

i 



From 6 to 11 



From 11 to 13 , 



From 13 to 16 



Summary 



BOYS AND GIRLS. 



Enumerated 

Registered at a primary school or e'cole 
■maternelle 

Enumerated 

Registered at a primary school 

Enumerated 

Registered at a primary school 

Enumerated 

Registered at a primary school 

Total of children from 2 to 16 

Registered at an establishment of primary 
instruction 



1881-1882. 



2,794,398 

1,101,928 
3,334,337 
3,439,369 
1,252,012 

942,924 
1,919,346 

501,374 
9,300,093 

5,985,595 



2,818,007 

1,124,618 
3,395,645 
3,552,238 
1,333,866 
1,112,850 
1,947,165 
477,883 
9,494,683 

6,267,589 



As groups two and three include the compulsory education period 
of seven years, from 6 to 13 years of age, they merit a more careful 
examination. 

The population from 6 to 13 years of age is divided as follows : 




1886-1887. 



Boys 

Girls 

Total 



2.316,593 
2,269,756 



2,375,457 
2,354,054 



4,586,349 



4,729,511 



As in almost all European countries, the number of boys in 
France slightly exceeds that of the girls At birth there are about 
105 boys for 100 girls, but during the first years of life the mortality 
of boys is greater than that of girls. 



21 



The following table from the last Statistique de V Enseignement 
primaire will be of interest in showing the effectiveness of the com- 
pulsory education laws : 



Number of children from 6 to 13 



Number of children from 6 to 13 registered as receiving 
instruction : 



In public and private ^coles maternelles 

In public primary schools 

In private schools 

In secondary schools 

At home (Law of March 28, 1882) 



Total registration. 



1881-1882. 



4,586,349 



85,170 

3,559,509 

737,614 

43,397 



4,425,690 



1886-1887. 



4,729,511 



113,796 

3,701,540 

849,753 

77,975 

9,905 

4,752,968 



A comparison of the census for 1886, with the reported registra- 
tion, shows an attendance of 23,457 in excess of the total number of 
children. This is attributed by the ministry to lack of precision in 
ascertaining and recording the ages of the children and to the redu- 
plication of names. As a matter of fact, the number registered is always 
greater than the number actually in attendance during the year. 

The number of children actually in attendance December 4, 1886, 
and June 4, 1887, was carefully ascertained by direction of the min- 
istry in all the public primary schools. The former date is in the 
winter term, which is the period of full attendance ; the latter, in 
the summer term, when, through agricultural duties, the attendance 
is somewhat smaller and more irregular. The results attained in 
this way differ very little from the general report. We are right, 
therefore, in concluding that the reported condition of the attend- 
ance on public schools merits all confidence. If we place the same 
value on the reported condition of the attendance on private 
schools, we may state that altogether, excluding the ecoles mater- 
nelles, 91 per cent of the total number of children registered 
in December, 1886, were present December 4, 1886, and that 88 
per cent of the total number registered in June, 1887, were 
present June 4, 1887. 

The difference between the number registered and the number 
actually present in the upper primary schools is less than that in 
the lower primary schools, because the upper primary schools are 
situated in cities, where the general attendance is more regular than 



22 



in the country, and because, as a rule, the puj^ils are more indus- 
trious than those of the lower primary schools. The upper primary 
schools, for example, registered 27,475 pupils in December, 1886, of 
which number 26,152 were present December 4, 1886 ; 25,276 pupils 
in June, 1887, of which number 23,749 were present June 4, 1887. 

The difference, on the contrary, between registration and actual 
attendance in the Kindergarten {ecoles maternelles) is greater. In 
December, 1886, 382,168 were registered, and 305,215 were present 
December 4. In June, 1887, 410,800 were registered and 338,280 
were present June 4. It is to be added, however, that attendance 
on ecoles maternelles is not compulsory, and that it is greatly 
reduced in bad weather. 

DENSITY OF POPULATION. 

In order to learn the needs of the various departments as regards 
school accommodations, we must study the statistics relative to the 
distribution of the inhabitants. In populous districts fewer schools 
are needed. The school must be at a convenient distance or pupils 
will either attend with difficulty or will not attend at all. 

It is much cheaper relatively to provide school accommodations 
in populous districts than where the inhabitants are scattered over 
a large territory. 

The area of France is 528,400 square kilometers. The average 
number of children from 6 to 13 years of age is nine per square 
kilometer. But in the different departments the school population 
varies greatly. The department of the Seine counts 581 children of 
this category, while other departments average but from six to two 
per square kilometer. 

There were 36,121 communes in France in 1886-1887. The fol 
lowing table shows the population of these communes as compared 
with 1881-1882 : 



From 12 to 400 Inhabitants 
From 401 to BOO inhabitants 
From 501 to l.ooo Inhabitants 
From 1,001 to B.ooo Inhabitants 
From 5,001 to lO.ooo Inhabitants 
From 10,001 to 20,000 inhabitants 

Above 20,000 inhabitants 

Total 



36,097 



1881-1882. 


188f 


-1887. 


13,271 




13,662 


3,599 




3,019 


10,633 




10,362 


8.059 




8,016 


312 




328 


132 




134 


91 




100 



36.121 



23 



FIFTH CHAPTEK. 

NUMBER AND DIVISION OF INSTITUTIONS FOR PRIMARY 

INSTRUCTION. 

The several establishmeuts of primary instruction are divided as 

follows : 

1. EcoLES Maternelles. 





1881-1882. 


1886-1887. 


Public 


3,161 
1,891 


3,447 


Private 


2,435 






Total 


5,052 


5,882 









2. Lower and Upper Primary Schools. 






1881-1882. 


1886-1887. 


Public 


62,997 
12,638 


66,708 


Private 


13,501 








Total 


75,635 


80,209 









a. Division of public primary schools. 






1881-1882. 


1886-1887, 


Boys' schools 


24,371 
21,504 
17,122 


25,121 


Girls' sciiools 


23,224 


Mixed schools . . - - - - 


18,368 








Total 


62,997 


66,708 









b. Division of private primary schools. 






1881-1882. 


1886-1887. 


Boys' schools 


2,195 

9,796 

647 


2,521 


Girls' schools 


10,236 


Mixed schools - - 


744 








Total 


12,638 


13,601 









24 



CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 
In 1887, 53,166 school buildings belonged to the communes.* 
The number of buildings rented or loaned diminished from 15,625 
in 1882 to 13,344 in 1887. The condition of school buildings 
improved greatly during this period. There were 35,547 building's 
in perfect repair in 1887 as against 29,355 in 1882. In 1887, 50,344 
schools were pro\dded with a garden (as against 42,586 in 1882) ; 5,592 
with a gymnasium and 466 with a workshop for manual training. 

CLASSES. 
The classes in the several establishments of primary instruction 
are as follows : 

1. EcoLES Maternelles. 

It is not possible to give the exact number of classes in these 
Kindergarten inasmuch as the division into two classes is not strictly 
followed in all. But as there are 3,447 directresses and 2,270 assist- 
ants in the 3,447 public ecoles matei^nelles, and 2,435 directresses and 
701 assistants in the 2,435 jDrivate ecoles maternelles, it is certain 
that a large number of these institutions have in reality two classes. 

2. Lower and Upper Primary Schools. 

The following table shows the division of classes in the public 
and private primary schools : 



Schools with one class 

Schools with two classes 

Schools with three classes 

School s with four classes 

Schools with five classes 

Schools with six classes 

Schools with seven classes 

Schools with eight or more classes 

Total 



1881-1882. 1886-1887 



53,295 

13,073 

4,563 

2,063 

1,120 

716 

322 

493 



75.635 



64,516 

14,969 

5,024 

2,410 

1,275 

883 

495 

647 



80,209 



In 1887 there were 96,057 classes in the public primary schools 
under the charge of as many teachers. 

*For purposes of comparison, the method of calculation used in 1882 is followed. 
Each groupe scolaire is counted as two schools. If counted as one school, there were 
60,518 schools in 18S7, of which number 47,174 belonged to the communes and 13,344 were 
loaned or rented. 



25 



These classes were divided as follows : 



1886-1887. 



Boys' classes 
Girls' classes 
Mixed classes 

Total 




96,057 



In 84.7 per cent of the classes, the number of pupils did not 
exceed fifty ; in 9.6 per cent, the number was between fifty-one and 
sixty ; in 3.7 per cent, between sixty-one and seventy ; in 1.3 per 
cent, between seventy-one and eig-hty ; above eighty, in 0.7 per cent 
of the classes. 

Like New York, France labors under a great disadvantage owing 
to the very unequal distribution of the inhabitants. 

In 7,117 ungraded schools, the total number of pupils in 1887 
averaged 14.7 for each school. 

In 969 schools with two classes, there were less than 50 
pupils. 

In 109 schools with four classes, there were less than 120 
pupils. 

In 118 schools with five classes, there were less than 175 
pupils. 

In 54 schools with six classes, there were less than 210 pupils. 

In 42 schools with seven or more classes, the average number of 
pupils per class was less than 35. 

In 1887, there were 34,471 classes in the private primary schools. 
These classes were divided as follows : 

Boys' classes 7,590 

Girls' classes 25,751 

Mixed classes l , 130 

Total 34,471 

Classes not exceeding fifty pupils ^ 31,525 

Classes with from flfty-one to sixty pupils ' 2,009 

Classes with from sixty-one to seventy pupils 676 

Classes with from seventy-one to eighty pupils 189 

Classes with more than eighty pupils 72 

Total 34,471 

4 



26 



TEACHERS. 
The teachers in the several institutions of primary instruction are 

classed as follows : 

1. EooLES Mateenelles. 







Directresses. 


Assistants. 


Total. 


Public schools } 


1881-1882 

1886-1887 

1881-1882 

1886-1887 


3,161 
3,447 
1,891 
2,436 


1,836 

2,270 

683 

701 


4,997 


Private schools j 


5,717 
2,574 




3,136 



By this table we see that there were 7,571 teachers in these Kin- 
dergarten in 1882, and 8,853 in 1887. 

2. Lower and Upper Primary Schools. 





Male. 


Female. 


Total. 


1881-1882 


58,137 
63,162 


66,828 
73.663 


124,965 


1886- 1887 


136,815 







These teachers were divided between public and private schools 
in the following ratio : 





1881-1882. 


1886-1887. 


Public schools 


88,220 
3«,745 


97,291 


Private schools 


39,524 






Total 


124,965 


136,816 







RATIO BETWEEN TEACHERS AND PUPILS. 
The reports of the number of public school teachers as compared 
with the number of children of school age show that in 1887 there 
was one male teacher for forty-three boys, and one female teacher 
for fifty -five girls. In 1882, these ratios were one to forty-six and one 
to sixty-one respectively. In Prussia, in 1886, the average number 
of pupils under one teacher was a fraction over seventy-four ; in 
New York, forty-three (on average daily attendance 26). 



27 



SIXTH CHAPTEE. 
STATISTICS RELATING TO THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS. 

Males. 

In 1882 there were eighty-three normal schools for males. New 
schools were established in seven departments between 1882 and 
1887. 

In 1887 the ninety normal schools for males had 489 directors, 
stewards (economes) and assistants {maitres adjoints), 606 professors 
{exteimes), and 5,443 students. 

In 1882 the eighty-three normal schools for males had 4,767 
students. In five years, therefore, the increase was 14.2 per cent. 

Between 1882 and 1887, 8,054 students were graduated from these 
normal schools for males. Between 1877 and 1882, 6,105 students 
were graduated therefrom. The increase in the later period, there- 
fore, was 31.9 per cent. 

Females. 

In 1882 there were forty -one normal schools for females. Forty 
new schools were established between 1882 and 1887. 

In 1887 the eighty-one normal schools for females counted 474 
directresses, stewards and assistants {mattresses adjointe^), 415 
professors (externes) and 3,544 students. 

In 1882 the forty-one normal schools for females counted only 
2,002 students. In five years, therefore, the rate of increase was 77 
per cent. 

Between 1882 and 1887, 4,285 students were graduated from the 
normal schools for females. Between 1877 and 1882, 1,310 students 
were graduated from these schools. The rate of increase in the 
later period, therefore, was 227 per cent. 

FACILITIES FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. 
The object of the law of 1879 was nearly accomplished in 1887, 
when all departments of France and Algeria, except Oran, had a 
normal school for males, and all except Alpes -Mar it lines, Aveyron, 
Belfort, Greuse, Eure* Indi-e, Tarn, Var and Constantine, a normal 
school for females. Everywhere in a large measure and exclusively 
in some departments, recruits for the teaching force are now normal 
graduates, and normal school facilities are adet^uate to supply the 
demand for teachers. 

* A normal school for females was finished in this department In October, 1888, 



28 

Under the new law the current expenses of the normal schools 
have increased from year to year. In 1882 the ordinary current 
expenses for normal schools amounted to $1,378,385. In 1887 the 
amount was increased to $1,880,095. 

TEACHERS' EXAMINATIONS. 

A study of the official reports of the examination of candidates 
for the brevet elementaire and the brevet superieur from 1882 to 1887 
shows that from 25.6 per cent to 45.3 per cent of the males were 
successful, and that from 36.3 per cent to 56.7 per cent of the females 
were successful. 

In 1882, 72.9 per cent of all public primarj'^ teachers held State 
certificates. In 1887 the percentag-e was increased to 90.8. In 
1887, 79.3 per cent of all private primary teachers held State certifi- 
cates ; 85.9 per cent of all teachers in public ecoles maternelles and 
71.6 per cent of all teachers in private ecoles maternelles. 



SEVENTH CHAPTER. 
STATISTICS RELATING TO INSPECTION. 

Primary instruction in France is under the minister of public 
instruction. 

The direction of primary instruction is divided between six 
departments. Six inspectors general are charged with the inspec- 
tion of primary instruction in the seventeen academies (including" 
Algeria). Three other g-eneral inspectors supervise, respectively, 
the management of the normal and technical schools; the manual 
training in the normal and upper primary schools ; the instruction 
in gymnastics and military exercises in the various establishments 
of primary instruction. 

The inspection of instruction in vocal and instrumental music, and 
the inspection of instruction in modern languages in the normal 
and upper primary schools are under special inspectors. The 
inspection of drawing in normal and upper primary schools is also 
confided to special inspectors of drawing. 

There are four inspectresses general of the ecoles maternelles. 

In each department, the service of primary instruction is directed 
by an academy inspector. A council, called the department coun- 
cil, presided over by the prefect, gives opinions, takes evidence and 
renders decisions on questions within its province (page 12). 



29 

The primary inspectors, uamecl by the minister, are subordinate 
to the rector and under the immediate orders of the academy 
inspector. 

The primary inspectors correspond to school commissioners in 
New York. For details regarding the qualifications of these officers 
see page 39. 

The number of primary inspectors for each year from 1882 to 
1887 is given in the following table : 

1882 455 

1883 473 

1884 475 

1885 474 

1886 474 

1887 456 

The area of France being 528,400 square kilometers, there was 
one primary inspector for each 1,159 square kilometers in 1887. 

Inspection districts vary greatly in size and in number of schools. 
The mean is one inspector for 146 public primary schools, for 211 
classes and 213 teachers of these schools, or for 189 schools of 
every kind (including ecoles maternelles), for 286 classes and 319 
teachers. 

The largest districts are Marseilles with 860 and 579 classes; 
Lille 1st and Lille 2d, Douai and Valenciennes, with 829, 701, 506 
and 644 respectively ; Bouen 1st, with 634 ; Gourhevoie-Neuilly and 
the 4^/i and Mh arrondissements of Paris, with 630 and 532 
respectively. 

The smallest districts are those of Castellane, Sister on and 
Loudun, with 120, 127 and 118 respectively. 

The mean of 146 public schools is too high. Eecommendations 
have been made in the latest reports to reduce to 100 in order that 
the inspector may visit each school under his charge several times 
a year. 

The attitude of the administration, however, is far from satisfac- 
tory in this respect. Eighteen inspectorships were discontinued in 
1887, and twenty-seven have been suppressed for financial reasons 
since 1887. 

Cost of Pkimaey iNsrECTioN. 

The cost of inspection is paid by the State. It amounted in 1882 
to $429,271, and in 1887 to $428,935 (including Algeria). 

There is general complaint at the false economy which has 
checked the growth of this most necessary feature of public school 
work. 



30 



EIGHTH CHAPTEK. 
STATISTICS RELATING TO AUXILIARY INSTITUTIONS. 

Classes of Adults. 

The number of these classes for men and women was 28,835 in 
1881-1882, and only 9,053 in 1886-1887. The decrease of 19,782 was 
due to the rigorous conditions imposed by the State as regards 
State aid, and also to the rapid development of primary instruction. 

In 1881-1882, 596,322 persons frequented these classes; in 1886- 
1887, the number was reduced to 184,612. 

By decree of April 4, 1882, these classes were divided into those 
in elementary work for the illiterate, and into those in special courses 
for the others in attendance. 

In 1886-1887 there were 1,579 classes doing elementary work, and 
7,474 special classes. 

With the development of primary instruction, illiteracy decreases 

rapidly, and classes for the illiterate become unnecessary. These 

statistics are interesting, however, as an additional evidence of the 

tremendous sacrifices France is making for the education of her 

people. 

School Libkaries. 

The following table shows the condition of the school libraries 
from 1882 to 1887 : 





Number of 
libraries. 


Number of 
volumes. 


Number of 
loans. 


1882 


28,251 
28,845 
30.920 
32,302 
33,880 
34.992 


2,894,440 
3,160,823 
3,226,896 
3,852,541 
4,159.208 
4,410.242 




1883 


3,082,486 


1884 


3,586,227 


1885 


4,157.786 


1886 


4,866,676 


1887 


5.421,634 







In many localities, thanks to the choice of books, the taste of the 
inhabitants, or the zeal of the teacher, the library is in general 
demand. In other districts, as with us, the books seldom leave the 
shelves. 

If these figures from the latest official statistics are reliable, and 
there seems to be no reason for doubt, the number of loans increased 
76 per cent between 1887 and 1883, when the first reports of this 
kind were required. 



31 



We must admit that the above table shows steady progress. This 

is easily understood when we note the care taken by the authorities 

through wise counsels and prizes to encourage a taste for good 

reading. 

Pedagogic Libearies. 

These libraries which exist in most departments complement the 
teachers' conferences. Teachers desirous of completing their educa- 
tion or of extending their professional information find therein the 
necessary pedagogic works, including periodicals and official 
documents. 

The following table shows the condition of these libraries from 
1882 to 1887 : 





Number of 
libraries. 


Number of 
volumes. 


1882 


2,470 
2,500 
2,624 
2,577 
2,626 
2,654 


585,651 


1883 ... 


663,878 


1884 


753,336 


1885 


803,419 


1886 


876,739 


1887 


889,183 







In five years the number of libraries increased by 184, and the 
number of volumes by 303,532. 

SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS. 

Caisses d'Epargne scolaires. 

These banks are established voluntarily by teachers. The admin- 
istration of public instruction encourages them with the idea that 
the promotion of a spirit of economy on the part of pupils may lead 
to the same habit and taste on the part of parents. 

The following table shows the progress made between 1883 and 1888 : 



Report for December 31 - 



1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 



Number of 
banks. 



Number of 
books. 



19,433 
21,484 
23,222 
23,980 
23,375 
22,385 



395,867 
442,021 
458,624 
491,160 
484,162 
478,173 



Amounts 
registered. 



$1,812,917 
2,049,665 
2,257,009 
2,386,853 
2,467,631 
2,636,663 



32 

The decrease iu the number of school banks in 1886 and 1887 may 
be attributed to the fact that some teachers have substituted postal 
banks for school banks. Nevertheless, as will be seen, the amounts 
deposited have increased from year to year. 

For further particulars relating: to these school banks, see pag-e 
86. Facts like these serve to explain the ease with which the 
French people raise money in emergencies. They form and 
enconrage the habit of saving if no more than penny by penny.* 



Caisses des Ecoles. 

The following table shows the condition of the caisses des ecoles 
in January, 1883 and in January, 1888 : 



Number of caisses 

Values in caisse at the close of the preceding exei'cice, and 

total receipts of current ex,ercice 

Total expense of the exen-cice 

Values in caisse at the close of the exeroice 



December 31, 

1882. 


December 31, 

1887, 


16,207 


16,954 


$612,232 


$1,021,671 


306,332 


703,684 


306,900 


317,987 



The law of March 28, 1882, made the establishment of a caisse des 
ecoles obligatory for each commune. As the result, the 928 caisses 
in January, 1880, were increased to 16,954 in January, 1888. 

Musee Pedagogique. 

This very useful institution is situated in Paris. It contains a 
very complete exhibit of models of schools, school furniture and 
school appliances from all parts of the world. Here may be found 
one of the best pedagogic libraries in existence, and most interest- 
ing specimens of work from the pupils of schools of different 
countries. 

The museum is open daily, Sundays excepted, from 10 a. m. to 
5 p. M. Admission is by card except on Thursday (1891). 

It is now proposed to make a permanent exhibit of the cahiers of 
pupils from all French iDiimary schools. Specimens of these blank- 



* School savings banks are found in Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, 
Russia and other European countries. Thiry's " School Savings Banks in the United 
States " shows what has been done and what may be done in this country. 



33 

books of monthly tasks are to be deposited (if the plan is adopted) 
annually at the museum as an incentive to earnest effort, and as an 
indication of the progress made from year to year. 

Miscellaneous. 

In addition to the auxiliary institutions mentioned above, there 
are thousands of museums accessible to the pupils and teachers. 
Many are directly connected with the schools. 

The value of these institutions is shown in the high appreciation 
by the French people of works of art. This is largely due to the 
foundations laid in the primary schools. 

Teachers' mutual aid societies,* the Oeuvre de VOrphelinat de 
V Enseignement primaire,'\ army and navy schools, asyla for the deaf 
and dumb, the blind and the insane, and reform schools are among 
the auxiliaries of primary instruction, too numerous to be set forth 
here in detail. 



NINTH CHAPTER. 

STATISTICS SHOWING THE CONDITION OF PRIMABY INSTRUC- 
TION IN ALGERIA.t 

Inasmuch as public instruction in Algeria, by virtue of the decrees 
of 1883, is a part of that of France, we must review briefly the sta- 
tistics from the three departments of Algeria, in order to present 
fully the condition of the schools under the direction and supervision 
of the minister of public instruction. 

In October, 1887, the primary schools of Algeria numbered 1,129, 
as against 978 in 1882 ; 1,840 primary teachers, as against 1,492 ; 
366 teachers of ecoles maternelles, as against 296 ; 97,097 pupils, as 
against 78,016 ; 8,963 native pupils, as against 3,516. 

Of the 33,917 French pupils of school age, 26,836, or 79 per cent, 
frequented the primary schools. There were also 1,400 pupils of 
school age in secondary schools. 

The recruitment of the teaching force is assured in part by four 
normal schools ; two for males and two for females. There are also 
two normal courses for native teachers annexed to the normal 
schools at Algiers and Constantine. 

*Teacher8' mutual aid societies are found in all 'departments of France except five, 
la 1887 these societies reported a capital of $807,354. 

tThis association has no orphanage, but provides for the care in private families of 
orphans whose parents were teachers or school officers. 

t France is now laboring strenuously to promote public education in her colonies and 
in WxBpays de protector at. 



34 



TENTH CHAPTER. 
PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 

Directors of private schools are free to choose methods of 
instruction, courses of study and books, provided the books are not 
among those blacklisted by the higher council as contrary to 
morals, the constitution and the laws. 

No private school may be given the title upper primary school 
unless the director hold the certificates required in the case of 
public upper primary schools. 

No private school, without the authorization of the department 
council, may receive children of both sexes, if there exist in the 
locality a special public or private school for girls. 

No private school may receive children under 6, if there exist in 
the commune a public ecole viaternelle or classe enfantine, unless 
provided with a classe enfantine. 

Every teacher desiring to open a private school must first declare 
his intention to the mayor of the commune, indicating the site for 
the school. 

The mayor acknowledges formally the receipt of the declaration, 
which is posted at the entrance to the mayoralty for one mouth. 

If the mayor find that the proposed site is not suitable for 
reasons touching morals or health, he opposes the opeuing of the 
school, informing the postulant within eight days after the 
declaration. 

The same formal steps must be taken in case of a change in the 
location of a i^rivate school, or in case of the admission of boarders. 

The postulant sends the same declaration to the prefect, the 
academy inspector and the government attorney. He submits also to 
the academy inspector his birth certificate, his diplomas, a state- 
ment of residence and work for ten preceding years, the plan of the 
school, and, if he belong to any association, a copy of the statutes 
of said association. 

The academy inspector, either of his own accord, or on complaint 
of the government ttorney, may oppose the opening of the school 
on moral or sanitary grounds. 

In the case of a dismissed public teacher, wishing to establish 
himself as private teacher in the district in which he once taught, 
the opposition may be made in the interest of public order. 

In case no opposition is made, the school is opened at the expira- 
tion of the month without further formality. 



35 

In cases of opposition to the opening- of private schools, decisions 
are given by the department council within a month. An appeal 
may be made from these decisions to the higher council. The 
school is not to be opened while the appeal is pending. 

Failure to comply with these provisions subjects to fines of 
from $20 to $200. The school is closed. In case of the repeti- 
tion of the offense, the delinquent is condemned to imprisonment 
for from six days to one month, and pays a fine of from $100 to 
$400. Extenuating- circumstances meet consideration under article 
463 of the penal code. 

Every private teacher may be brought before the department 
council on complaint of the academy inspector, for any serious fault 
in the discharge of his duties, for misconduct or immorality. The 
department council may censure or may suspend, temporarily or 
permanently, according to the gravity of the offense. An appeal 
may be made to the higher council. 

Every director of a private school refusing to submit to the 
supervision and inspection of the school authorities, under legal 
provisions, is fined from $10 to $100, and, for a second offense, 
from $100 to $200. Extenuating circumstances meet consideration 
under the section of the penal code referred to above. In case of 
two offenses in one year the establishment will be closed. 



ELEVENTH CHAPTEK. 
ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Every district {commune) should be provided with at least one 
public elementary school, but with the authorization of the depart- 
ment council and with the consent of the minister, several communes 
may unite in establishing and maintaining a school. 

Several villages of a commune may be attached to the school of a 
neighboring commune by a decision of the interested communes. 
In case of a difference of opinion, this may be prescribed by a decree 
of the department council. 

If the commune or union of communes have 500 inhabitants or 
more, it should have at least one special school for girls, unless 
authorized by the department council to substitute a mixed school. 

The law of March 20, 1883 makes it obligatory on each commune 
to establish schools at the chief place in the commune and in the 
villages or centers of population at a distance of three kilometers 
from the said chief place or from each other, and embracing at least 



36 

20 children of school age. By law of October 30, 1886, the district 
of village schools so created may include portions of several com- 
munes. In this case as in the cases referred to above, the interested 
communes contribute toward the expense of building and maintain- 
ing the schools in the proportions determined by the municipal 
councils, and, in case of differences of opinion, by the prefect with 
the advice of the department council.* 

The department council of public instruction, with the advice of 
the municipal councils and with the approval of the minister, deter- 
mines the number, nature and location of the public primary schools 
of every degree, which each commune is to establish and maintain, 
and the number of teachers to be employed therein. 

The expense of the establishment of public primary schools is to 
be borne by the communes. The lodging of the teaching force ; the 
maintenance or rent of the buildings ; the purchase and mainten- 
ance of the school furniture ; the heating, lighting and janitor's fees 
must be paid by the communes. The same law also applies to 
public girls' schools now established in communes of more than 400 
souls ; to public motherly schools (eco/cs ruaternelles) which are or 
will be established in communes of more than 2,000 souls, having a 
close population of at least 1,200 souls ;t to public classes enfaniines 
embracing children of both sexes and taught by women. 

By law of March 20, 1883, the expense of establishing a school is 
met either by levying on available funds of the commune or by a 
loan at the special caisse or by grants from the department and from 
the State. 

The site for the school is designated by the municipal council, or, 
in default, by the prefect. 

By law of April 7, 1887, the plans and estimates are prepared by 
the mayor and adopted by the municipal council. They are 
examined by the academy inspector who consults the department 
committee on public buildings. On the report of the academy 
inspector, the prefect determines whether the plans and estimates 
are to be accepted or whether the municipal council is to be 
requested to ijresent others. 

If the plans are to be accepted the municipal council is to vote 
the loans and provide the necessary resources. 

* la 1887 there were 80 communes which had no schools and 67 which had only private 
schools. In 1882 the figures were 159 and 89 respectively. 

t The law does not oblige communes to establish e'coles iiiatfrnelles, and they are not 
classed as public institutions in smaller communes. 



37 

When the municipal council has voted a loan for at least thirty 
years, destined to pay the whole or a part of the estimated 
expense, and has decided to demand aid from the state by virtue of 
the law of June 20, 1885, the prefect submits the claim to the 
general council at its next sesssion. If the council refuse or neglect 
to come to a decision, the prefect applies to the minister of public 
instruction. 

If the minister approve all arrangements, including plans, speci- 
fications and estimates, he fixes the amount of the State grant 
according to decree of February 15, 1886, and determines the time 
for the completion of the work. 

The work of construction is supervised by a member of the 
department committee on public buildings whose salary and 
expenses are included in the original estimate. The State makes 
no payments until the building is finished and approved, except on 
the certificate of this official that the work is being done according 
to contract. 

By law of June 20, 1885, the proportion of the annuities paid 
by the State may not in any case exceed 80 per cent nor be 
less than 15 per cent, in accordance with the resources of the 
commune. 

Communes whose centime communal represents a greater value 
than 6,000 francs, can not receive any aid from the State, either for 
the construction, reconstruction or enlargement of their primary 
schools. 

Each year the budget of public instruction contains a special 
chapter on grants to departments, cities or communes, for the pay- 
ment of a portion of the annuities due for the construction of 
public, high, secondary and primary schools. 

The following table fixes the maximum amount toward which the 
State will contribute for the different classes of schools connected 
with primary instruction : 

1 . For a village school (ungraded ) $2 , 400 

2. For a school in the chief place of a commune (with one class either mixed or 

for girls or for boys) 3,ooo 

3. For a (jroupe scolaire, with one class for each sei 5,600 

4. For each class added to the groupe scolaire, or to a school in the chief place of a 

commune 2,400 

5 . For an tfcoZe mater7ielle 3 ,000 

6. For an upper primary school 16,000 

7. For a normal school 80,000 



38 



TWELFTH CHAPTER 

INSPECTION. 

Public and private primary schools are inspected : 

1. Jiy the inHpectorn general of 'public instruction. — These officers 
are appointed by the president of the republic on the recom- 
mendation of the minister. They are chosen from the rectors, 
academy inspectors, colleg-e professors, secondary school principals, 
inspectors of primary instruction and other officers whose qualifica- 
tions are definitely fixed by law. At the commencement of each 
year the minister assi^-ns to each of these officers the departments 
he is to visit. The condition of normal schools is determined by 
special inspection. Vocal and instrumental music, manual training 
and modern lang-uag-es in normal schools and in upper primary 
schools are the objects of special missions, while the inspection of 
the drawing- in these schools is confided to special inspectors, each 
one for the district to which he is attached. The inspectors general 
form a committee, under the director of primary instruction as 
chairman, to study questions submitted by the minister. 

2. By the rectors and academy inspectors. — The rectors are 
appointed by the presidont of the republic on the recommendation 
of the minister. 

They must have obtained the deg-ree of doctor. The principal 
duties of rectors are to approve the list of books to be used in 
the public schools of each department ; to api^oint the commission 
for the examination of candidates seeking- admission to the normal 
schools; to regulate promotion of students in normal schools; 
to name normal school physicians ; to arrange the division of 
work in normal school faculties ; to appoint examining committees 
for teachers' certificates and pupils' certificates. The academy 
inspectors are appointed by the minister. They must either have 
had ten years' experience in teaching or liold a diploma equivalent 
to our bachelor's degree. They are chosen from college professors, 
principals of secondary schools, inspectors of primary instruction 
and other school officers whose qualifications are defined by law. 
The principal duties of academy inspectors are to insure the execu- 
tion of orders ; to authorize public ecoles maternelles to receive more 
than 150 children ; to accord dispensations in age for teachers' certi- 
ficates ; to choose subjects for theses at examinations for teachers' 
certifictates and school examinations ; to report the results of teachers' 
examinations ; to name the commission for examining teachers of 



39 

needlework ; to preside over the commissions for the certificate of 
aptitude pedagoglque, and of admission to the normal school. 

3. By the inspectors and inspectresses of primary instruction. — 
These officers are named by the minister. They must hold the cer- 
tificate of fitness for the inspection of primary schools, and for the 
direction of normal schools. An annual examination is held for this 
purpose before a commission of five persons. Candidates must be 
at least 25 years of age. They must have had an experience of at 
least five years in teaching- in public schools. During two of these 
years at least they must have directed a school. They must hold 
the certificate of fitness for a professorship in the normal schools, or 
the title of professor or bachelor of secondary instruction, or diplomas 
equivalent to our high school diplomas or bachelors' degrees. The 
examination is both oral and written, including a practical test. 
The oral examination embraces pedagogy, school law and school 
management. Candidates are required to explain a passage in one 
of the authors' designated for the year. They next draw by lot a 
question relative to some point included in the program of examina- 
tions, and, after three hours' reflection, this question is treated orally. 

The written examination consists of two theses composed in two 
consecutive days, one on some pedagogic subject, the other on school 
administration. 

The practical test lies in the inspection of a normal school, an 
upper primary school, a lower primary school or ecole maternelle 
followed by a verbal report (1887, 1888). 

These officers correspond to our school commissioners. They are 
placed under the immediate authority of the academy inspector, and 
receive no instructions save from him, the rector, the inspectors 
general and the minister. They are not permitted to accept any 
other public position, except the inspection of children employed in 
manufactories. Their principal duties are to assure the execution 
of orders ; to inspect new school buildings before they are opened ; 
to inspect public and private schools ; to control the classification 
and gradation of pupils ; to approve the time-tables adopted by 
school directors ; to authorize promotion from the ecoles maternelles 
or the classes enfantines to the primary schools ; to make a report 
to the academy inspector within fifteen days after each inspection ; 
to supervise the formation and construction of public schools, the 
opening of private schools, of classes of adults and apprentices ; to 
establish school banks (caisses des ecoles) ; to give advice touching 
the nomination and promotion of public school teachers, and their 
rewards and punishments. 



40 

Primary inspectors are divided into classes. To be eligible for 
promotion to a biglier class, they must have spent three years in 
the class next below and must be on the list for advancement made 
each year by the inspectors general. 

4. By the membey-s of the department council appointed for the 
purpose. — These officers inspect only the condition of school build- 
ings, furniture, and supplies, the health and deportment of pupils. 
They have no authoiity to touch on the course of study or methods 
of instruction. 

5. By the mayor and cantonal delegates {deUgues cantonaux). — The 
inspection of these officers is restricted as explained under 4. 

6. By the inspectresses general and department inspectresses of the 
ecoles maternelles. — Both classes of officials are aj^pointed by the 
minister. Inspectresses general must have attained the age of 35 
years, with five years' experience in public or private instruction, 
and hold the certificate of fitness for the inspection of the ecoles 
maternelles and classes enfantines. Inspectresses general belong to 
the consultation committee of primary education. Department 
inspectresses must be 30 years of age, with three years' experience 
in public or private instruction. They must hold the same cer- 
tificate of capacity as the inspectresses general. These inspectresses 
advise the nomination and recall of directors and teachers of ecoles 
maternelles. Restricted to these schools their duties correspond in 
a measure with those of primary inspectors. 

An annual examination for the fitness for the inspection of ecoles 
maternelles and classes enfantines is held before a commission 
appointed by the minister. 

Candidates must be at least 25 years of age. They must have 
taught at least five years in public schools. They must hold either 
the hrevet superieur (page 43), the certijicat d'aptitude pedagogique 
(page 44), or the certijicat d'aptitude a Venseignement des jeunes 
Jilles. 

The examination is both oral and written, including a practical 
test. 

The oral examination embraces hygiene, pedagogy as applied to 
ecoles maternelles, school law and school administration, in so far as 
the same relate to these schools. 

The written test consists of two theses, one on some pedagogic 
subject pertaining to ecoles niaternelles, the other on questions of 
hygiene relating to these schools. 

The practical test is a visit to an ecole maternelle with a verbal 
report of the same (1887). 



41 

7. From a medical standpoint, by the communal or departmental 

medical inspectors. 

Regulation of Inspection. 

The inspection of public schools is made in accordance with the 
decrees of the higher council (page 11). 

The inspection of private schools includes morality, hygiene and 
the obligations imposed by the compulsory education act of March 
28, 1882. It touches the course of study and methods of instruction 
only in so far as the same be contrary to morals, to the constitution 
and to the laws. 

Ministerial deciees regulate the inspection districts, the number 
of inspectors, their jurisdiction, classification, traveling expenses and 
promotion. 

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER. 
TEACHERS' CONFERENCES. 

Conferences of teachers for the discussion of questions pertaining 
to the theory and practice of teaching were established in 1837, but 
were afterwards abandoned. In 1880 they were reestablished and 
from that date have been jDroductive of much good. Attendance is 
compulsory and the expenses of teachers are jDaid while in attend- 
ance. The academy inspector presides at these conferences by 
right, but, in his absence, the duty devolves on the inspector of 
primary instruction. 

The conferences are held in each cantOn, though several cantons 
may unite. The rector decides as to whether male and female 
teachers are to attend the same conference. Usage varies in this 
respect. The number, date and place of meeting of these confer- 
ences are fixed bj^ academic authority. At the last meeting of each 
school year, the conference proposes questions for the following 
year. These are published as soon as possible by the academy 
inspector. A report of each meeting is sent to the inspector of 
primary instruction. 

In the circular of 1880, relative to these conferences, Jules Ferry, 
at that time minister of public instruction, wrote : "It is important 
that our teaching force escape the feeling of isolation which 
paralyzes the strongest wills. Young or old, normal school gradu- 
ates or not, teachers must struggle against discouragement and 
routine. To keep each one in touch nothing is more efiicacious 
than a full body which does not permit any of its members to grow 
feeble. In associating in these periodic conferences, teachers not 
6 



42 

only learn to discuss questions of methods and all the details of 
school org-anization for which they have a common interest, but 
they form pleasant'relations with their colleagues and increase the 
points of contact with their superior officers, creating a feeling- of 
g-ood fellowship and a professional spirit which constitute the power 
and the dig-nity of the teaching force." 



FOUETEENTH CHAPTEE. 
THE TEACHING FORCE. 
No one is permitted to teach in any capacity in a public school 
unless provided with the certificates required by law.* 

General Certificates. 

The g-eneral certificates of capacity for primary instruction are : 
1. T e brevet eUmentaire. — Candidates must be at least 16 years 
of age unless a dispensation is granted by the academy inspector. 
The examination commission is composed of seven members, 
appointed annually by the rector on the recommendation of the 
academy inspector. Examinations are held twice a year in each 
department. Each candidate must present an application written 
and signed by himself, with his birth certificate, at least fifteen 
days before the examination. Persons convicted of crime or dis- 
honorable acts, or deprived of all or part of the rights mentioned 
in article 42 of the penal code, are not admitted to the examination. 

The examination involves three series of tests, — 

a. An exercise in dictation of about a pag-e in length (the punctu- 
ation is not dictated) ; an exercise in penmanship of one page in 
cursive, hdtarde and ronde ; an exercise in French composition 
(letter or simply story, explanation of a proverb, maxim, moral or 
educational precept) ; a question in arithmetic and in the metric 
system with the full solution of a problem (whole numbers, fractions, 
measure of surfaces and of volumes). 

h. The free-hand drawing- of a common object of simple form 
(plan, section, elevation); elementary gymnastic exercises, pre- 
scribed for primary schools. The girls substitute a sketch of some 
common object and specimens of needlework (under the supervision 
of ladies appointed by the rector for this purpose). 

* Teachers must now hold State certificates. Before 1881 they were also licensed by 
ecclesiastics. Time was allowed for eliminating teachers not provided with State 
licenses. 



43 

c. Five oral tests, namely : Keading with explanation, from a col- 
lection of extracts in prose and poetry, with questions on the mean, 
ing- of words, the sequence of ideas and grammatic construction ; 
questions in arithmetic including- the metric system ; the elements 
of French history and civics ; the geography of France, with exer- 
cises on the blackboard ; elementary music ; elementary notions of 
the physical and natural sciences. In addition the boys are asked 
questions pertaining to agriculture. No one is examined on a sub- 
sequent series if he or she fail to attain half the maximum credits 
allowed for the preceding. The oral and written tests should not in 
any case go beyond the me an of the courses of study of the highest 
class in the primary schools. The fee for the examination is 
two dollars. Normal school pupils are exempt. Rejected candi- 
dates may present themselves at the next examination (1887, 1888, 
1889). 

2. The brevet superieur. — Candidates must hold the brevet eje- 
mentaire. They must be at least 18 years of age unless a dispensa- 
tion is granted by the academy inspector. The examining com- 
mission is composed of at least seven members, appointed 
annually by the rector, on the recommendation of the academy 
inspectors. Examinations are held twice a year in each depart, 
ment. Candidates must present the brevet elenientaire, an 
application in their own handwriting and signature, and birth 
certificate, at least fifteen days before the examination. Persons 
convicted of crime or dishonorable acts or deprived of all or part of 
the rights mentioned in article 42 of the penal code are not admitted 
to the examination. 

The examination comprises oral and written tests, all of which 
must be borne at the same session. 

The written tests are, — 

a. A composition including a question in arithmetic, and one on 
the physical and natural sciences with the most common applications 
to hygiene, industry, agriculture and horticulture. The male candi- 
dates have in addition a question involving practical operations in 
geometry. They are permitted to use a table of logarithms ; 

b. A French composition (literature or morale); 

c. An exercise in drawing from a model ; 

d. A composition in modern languages (English, German, Italian, 
Spanish, or Arabic, in France and Algeria ; Greek or Turkish, before 
the commission at Constantinople), consisting of an easy theme, 
with lexicon. 



44 

The oral tests are, — 

a. Questions on education and morals ; 

h. The French lau^uaf>-e : Reading- with explanation from a 
French author on the list prepared once in three years by the 
minister and published a year in advance ; questions in literary 
history, limited to the principal authors of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 
19th centuries ; 

G. Questions on memorable epochs, great names, essential facts in 
general history and in the history of France, principally in modern 
times ; 

d. Questions on the geography of France, and notions of general 
geography. 

e. Arithmetic, with practical applications ; book-keeping, and, for 
the men alone, an elementary knowledge of geometric and algebraic 
calculations, land surveying and leveling. 

/. Notions of physics, chemistry and natural history, and, for 
the males alone, an elementary knowledge of agriculture and 
horticulture. 

g. Translation at sight of about twenty lines from an easy English, 
German, Italian, Spanish or Arabic text at the choice of the candi- 
date. Greek or Turkish may be substituted before the commission 
at Constantinople. The written and oral tests of the hrevet super- 
ieur ought not to exceed in difficulty the mean of the normal school 
courses of study. The fee for the examination is four dollars. Nor- 
mal school pupils are exempt. Rejected candidates may present 
themselves at the next examination (1887, 1888, 1889). 

3. The certijicat d' aptitude pkiaijogique. — Candidates must be 21 
years of age. They must hold at least the brevet elementaire. 
They must have had an experience of at least two years in public 
or private schools. The time passed at a normal school as pupil- 
teacher after 18 years of age for the males and 17 years for the 
females is allowed to count toward the experience required. Dis- 
pensations may be granted by the minister on the recommendation 
of the department council. An annual examination is held in each 
department before a commission of at least ten members, appointed 
by the rector on the recommendation of the academy inspector. 
Candidates must apply at least fifteen days in advance, presenting 
an application in their own handwriting and with their own signa- 
ture ; the birth certificate ; the brevet elementaire or the brevet 
superieur. The examination is both written and oral, including a 
practical test. 



45 

The written examination consists of a thesis on some elementary 
educational topic, composed during the last week of the long vaca- 
tion uuder the supervision of the primary inspector, and corrected 
by the commission. 

The practical test consists of three hours' work in the school or 
class of the applicant. A sub-commission, composed of at least 
three members, including a primary inspector and a male teacher 
(for the males) and a female teacher (for the females) is appointed by 
the academy inspector for the purpose of supervising the test. The 
female may take this test in an ecole materneUe, but in this case the 
certificate authorizes her to teach only as titulaire in these schools. 
Private teachers are permitted to undergo this test either in their 
own class or in a public school. 

The oral test which is taken before the whole commission consists 
of criticism of books of monthly tasks {cahiers de devoirs menstiels); 
questions relating to the other tests and involving the keeping and 
direction of elementary schools or ecoles maternelles and questions 
on practical pedagogy (1887, 1888). 

4. Certificate as professor of the upper primary schools. — ^The qualifi- 
cations are tbe same as those for the certificate of professor in the 
primary normal schools for males and females (1887). 

5. Certificate as professor of the primary normal scliools for males and 
/emafes'.— There are two kinds of certificates, one for the arts and 
one for the sciences. Two commissions are named by the minister 
annually, one for the sciences and one for the arts. Each commis- 
sion is composed of at least five members. To these are added, 
for the females, two directresses or professors of normal schools 
for females. Special examinations may also be appointed. Candi- 
dates must register one month before the opening of the session. 
They must be at least 21 years of age and must specify where they 
have lived and what positions they have held. They must hold the 
brevet superieur or a bachelor's degree or (the females) a diploma 
from a secondary school. They must have had at leiist two years' 
experience in public or private schools. 

The tests are written, oral and practical. 

The written tests comprise, for the arts, — 

A theme on a literary or grammatic subject ; an historic and 
geographic essay ; a theme on morale or psychology as applied to 
education ; a composition in English or German, theme and version. 
For the sciences, the written examination comprises a mathematic 
exercise ; questions in physics, chemistry and the natural sciences ; 
an exercise in geometric and ornamental drawing; a theme on 



46 

morale or education. The subjects are chosen from the courses of 
study in the primary normal schools. 

The oral and practical proofs comprise, for the arts, a lesson on 
some subject chosen by lot, followed by interrogations ; the reading- 
of a passage from a French classic, with explanation ; the correction 
of a task of a pupil-teacher ; the explanation at sight of a German 
or English text, chosen from the official list of authors. The test 
for the sciences consists of a lesson on a subject chosen by lot 
(mathematics or physical and natural sciences) ; an exercise on some 
other subject included in the course of study, which may comprise 
the correction of a task of a pupil-teacher ; a physical or chemical 
experiment and a practical lesson in natural history, the subject to 
be drawn by lot. 

Special Certificates. 

The special certificates for particular lines of primary work are, — 

1. Certificate as teacher of modei'n languages. — Candidates must 
have attained the age of 21 years. They must have had two years' 
experience in public or private primary or secondary schools, or 
two years' residence in a foreign country. The males must hold 
the brevet superieur or one of the three bachelors' degrees ; the 
females the hrevet superieur or the diploma received on graduation 
from a secondary school for girls. The examination is held before 
a commission, named annually by the minister and sitting at Paris. 

Candidates must specify the language in which they desire to be 
examined (German, English, Italian, Spanish, Arabic) ; the diplomas 
and certificates which they possess ; the places where they have 
resided, and the positions they have held. 

The examination is both written and oral. 

The written examination comprises a version ; a theme ; a simple 
composition in the foreign language (letter or story, exi)lanation of 
a proverb, maxim, moral or educational precept); an essay in French 
touching the method of teaching modern languages. The use of 
the dictionary is not authorized. 

The oral examination includes the reading and translation of a 
page of moderate difficulty, selected from the list of aiithors pre- 
scribed for the 3^ear, with definitions of words and gi-ammatic con- 
struction ; a convej'sational exercise, in the foreign tongue, on the 
page read ; the translation at sight of a French prose author ; ques- 
tion on methods of teaching modern languages (1887). 

2. Certificate as teacher of ntanxat training. — Candidates should 
be 21 years of age. The males should hold the hrevet superieur, 
the degree of bachelor of science or bachelor of special secondary 






WC {i/UL^ (^^C 




(T ^^U dy ion 

Englisli Exercise by Frencli Boy ^eveii Years of Age. 

The exercise here given was selected at a recitation in the elementary course of one of the 
special Parisian schools in which English is taught. It seems to illustrate the fact that eender 
in English seems as difficult to French as gender in French to English pupils. 




47 

iustruction.* The females should hold the brevet superieur or the 
diploma received on graduation from a secondary school for g-irls. 

The examination is held by two commissions, one for males, the 
other for females. 

These commissions are named each year by the minister, and sit 
at Paris. 

Candidates should register one month in advance, submitting" a 
biographic sketch of the six years preceding the examination, and 
pro\dng the possession of the requisite certificates. 

The males must submit, — 

a. A geometric drawing at a fixed scale of an object in relief, or 
a drawing involving an elementary problem in descriptive geometry 
(line and plane, intersection of geometric solids in simple cases — 
prisms, pyramids, cylinders, cones and spheres, shading) ; 

b. A written composition on some pedagogic subject related to 
manual instruction ; 

c. A test in modeling from an easy model ; 

d. A piece in iron or wood made from a working drawing ; 

e. A simple exercise in turning and sculpturing after a model ; 

/". An explanation, in the form of a lesson of fifteen minutes, of a 
subject drawn by lot from matters which should be commented on 
by the teacher before every exercise in manual training, such as the 
tools, the material, the plan and the rational execution of the task. 
Candidates are allowed one-half hour for ]3reparation. 

The females must submit, — 

a. A composition on some question in domestic economy ; 

b. An ornamental design for needlework ; 

c. A practical test, including one or more exercises from the 
courses of study in manual training for girls in the normal and 
upper primary schools ; 

d. An explanation, in the form of a fifteen minute lesson, of a 
subject included in the courses of study of the schools last men- 
tioned in domestic economy and needlework. One-half hour is 
allowed for preparation. 

The candidates may ask for the following additional tests : 

a. Drawing from an ornament in relief ; 

h. A blackboard exercise of ten minutes, after twenty minutes' 
preparation, consisting of a lesson on tlie representation at sight of 
some common object in perspective. Certificates of candidates 

*In France the deirrees bachelor of arts and bachelor of science may be secured at 16 
years of aee. They are not as advanced as our own bachelors' degrees, to which the 
diplome de licencie'es lettres and the diploma de licencie'es sciences more nearly correspond. 



48 

sustaining- these complementary tests authorize the teaching of 
imitative drawing {dessin d' imitation) in the upper primary schools 
(1887,11891). 

3. Certificate a.s' teacher of drawing {dessin d' imitation et dessin geome- 
trique). — An annual examination is held at Paris by a commission 
named by the minister. The candidates must be 18 years of age 
and must register one month in advance. The examination com- 
prises three series of tests — written and graphic, oral, pedagogic. 

The written and graphic tests include : 

a. Eepresentation in perspective of a simple object, such as a 
geometric solid, fragment of architecture, simple vase, etc. The 
candidate must give on the same sheet a geometric plan and eleva- 
tion, and, if necessary, a section of the object represented, the whole 
with dimensions and drawn to a fixed scale. 

b. A simple theme ; 

c. The drawing at sight of an ornament in relief — foliage, rosette, 
capital ; 

d. The drawing of a head after the antique. 

The oral tests comprise an examination on projections in general, 
on geometric representation and the drawing in perspective of 
simple objects; elementary questions on historic art with drawing 
on blackboard ; questions on the structure and iDroportions of the 
human body and anatomy in general. 

The pedagogic tests comprise the correction of one of the orna- 
mental drawings made at the examination ; the correction of a 
drawing of a head ; a lesson on the blackboard on a subject included 
in the course of instruction in geometric drawing at the normal and 
upper primary schools (1887). 

4. Certificate as teacher of singing. — An annual examination is 
held before a commission at Paris, named by the minister. Candi- 
dates must be 18 years of age and must register at least fifteen days 
before the examination. 

There are two series of tests. 
The first series includes, — 

a. A theme on some question of musical instruction found in the 
normal school courses of study ; 

b. An exercise in musical dictation ; 

c. An exercise in construction and harmonization ; 
The second series includes, — 

a. lleadiug at sight a lesson in solfege in the key of sol and in the 

key of /a ; 
h. Singing of a melody with words, chosen by the candidate ; 



49 

c. Performance of an air by heart, with words and without 
accompaniment, chosen by the candidate ; 

d. Performance at sight of a simple accompaniment on the piano, 
which is to be transposed at once into the key indicated by the 

jury ; 

e. Questions on the theory of music ; 
/. Notions of the history of music ; 

Knowledge of the jirincipal masterpieces of choral music ; 
g. A theoretic and practical lesson by the candidate on the black- 
board (1887). 

5. Certificate as teacher of gymnastics.— An annual examination is 
held before a commission which is named by the rector and which 
sits at Paris. 

Candidates must register at least fifteen days before the examina- 
tion, and must state where they have resided, what positions they 
have occupied, and what certificates they hold. 

The examination comprises oral and practical tests. 

The oral examination embraces questions on those sciences which 
find a direct application in the study of gymnastics (according to 
ministerial decree). 

The practical examination includes the performance of five gym- 
nastic exercises from among those prescribed in the manual pub- 
lished by the ministry ; the direction of the gymnastic exercises of 
a group of pupils (1887, 1888, 1891). 

6. Certificate as teacher of needlework. — The examination is held 
before a commission in each department. Applicants must register 
at least eight days before the examination. They must be 18 years 
of age and, with their application in their own haudwiiting and 
signature, they must submit their birth certificate. ' 

The needlework which candidates are to execute is chosen from 
the courses of study in the middle and upper classes of the lower 
primary schools (1887). 

7. Certificate as teacher of militanj exercises. — The examination is 
held before a commission in each department. Candidates should 
register 'eight days in advance. They should be 18 years of age, 
and with the application written in their own hand and signed, they 
should submit their birth certificate ; a certificate of the military 
authorities that they have served in the active army, and have 
merited the certificate of good conduct. 

Candidates direct the military exercises of a group of pupils as 
indicated by the commission in accordance with the program of the 
lower primary schools (1887), 
7 



60 

8. Certificate as teacher of agriculture. — Candidates should hold the 
brevet superieur jiud the cerlificat d' aptitude pedagogique, and should have 
been for one year in a Sf ate agricultural school. Dispensations may 
be g-ranted by the minister on the recommendation of the rector. 

The possession of the professor's certificate for the normal schools 
and for the upper primary scliools does away Avitli the necessity of 
holding" the certificat d' aptitude pedagogique. 

The examination includes oral, written and practical tests. 

The written tests consist of a composition on a subject included 
in the course of study in agriculture and horticulture in the Tipper 
primary schools. Candidates are forbidden to use any book or note. 

The oral tests consist of an explanation, after preparation with 
closed doors, of a subject taken from the course of study of upper 
primary schools in agriculture and horticulture ; of questions on 
th(^ physical and natural sciences in their relations to agriculture. 

The practical proofs are two in number. The first is in connec- 
tion with agricultural experiments or land improvements. It 
embraces the composition of the soil, the proper manures, the 
manner of using, the seed to sow, the variety of plants to cultivate, 
the manner of cultivation, the feeding of live stock, the poultry, etc. 
The second takes place in a garden. It relates to the operations of 
grafting and pruning, to the multiplication of fruit trees, to market- 
gardening, apiculture, etc. In the course of these tests, the candi- 
tlates are to respond to (juestions of the jury, particularly concerning 
products of the neighborhood (1801). 

n. Certificate as director of normal school. — The qualifications are 
the same as those for an inspector of primary schools and are given 
in the chapter on inspection. 

Cj.asses of Teacheks. — Penalties and Hecompenses. 

Male and female teachers are divided into two classes, called 
slagiaires and titulaires. 

No one can be appointed instituteur tilidaire if he has not had at 
least two years' experience in a public or private school, if he is not 
provided with the certificat d'aptitude pedagogique, and if he has not 
been placed on the list prepared by the department council. 

The time passed at the normal school after 18 for the males and 
17 for the females is allowed in reckoning the two years. 

Dispensations may be granted by the minister on the recom- 
menilation of the department council. 

The titulaires in charge of a school with more than two classes 
take the name directeur or directrice of lower primary schools. 



51 

The uumber of assistants in schools with several classes is deter- 
mined by the department council. These assistants are either 
slagiaires or titulaires. Assistants in upper primary schools must be 
21 years of age and hold the brevet superieur. If provided with the 
certificate of capacity for a professorship in normal schools, they 
assume the title professor. 

All public school teachers are shut out from the commercial and 
industrial professions, and from administrative duties. They are 
forbidden to hold employments in connection with relig-ious ser- 
vices. They may exercise the duties of mayoralty-secretary, with 
the authorization of the department council. 

Instituteurs Htagiairea teach under appointment of the academy 
inspector. This appointment may be revoked by the academy 
inspector for cause shown by the primary inspector. 

The dagiaires are subject to the same disciplines as the titulaires, 
excepting- revocation. 

The department council prepares annually a list of all teachers 
eligible for promotion to the rank of titulaires as assistants in or in 
charge of a school. 

The appointment of instituteurs titulaires is made by the prefect, 
with the authority of the minister and on the proposition of the 
academy inspector. 

Directors, directresses and professors of upper primary schools 
are appointed by the minister. They should hold the certificate of 
fitness for a professorship in the normal schools. 

Assistant teachers holding the brevet superieur, and special teach- 
ers, are appointed by the prefect on the recommendation of the 
academy inspector. 

Directors and directresses of schools of manual training are 
appointed by the minister according to the conditions of the law of 
December 11, 1880, and the decree of March 17, 1888. 

Change of residence of titulaires for the needs of the service is 
pronounced by the prefect on the recommendation of the academy 
inspector. Change of residence of stagiaires is pronounced by the 
academy inspector. 

The disciplines applical)le to the public primary teaching force 
are reprimand, censure, revocation, suspension for a period not 
exceeding five years, expulsion. 

The reprimand is pronounced by the academy inspector. The 
censure is given by the academy inspector on cause shown by the 
department council. It may be inserted in the official bulletin. 



52 

The revocation is pronounced by the prefect on the proposition 
of the academy inspector and for cause shown by the department 
council. An appeal may be made to the minister. Temporary sus- 
pension and absolute expulsion are pronounced by a decree of the 
department council. 

An appeal may be made to the higher council. 

In serious and urg-ent cases the academy inspector may suspend 
a teacher while the investigation is pending-, but said teacher does 
not forfeit his salary for the period. 

Public primary school teachers may receive honorable mention, 
bronze and silver medals. 

One silver medal may be given annually for each group of 300 
teachers, and one for each fraction exceeding 150. 

One bronze medal may be given for each group of 150 teachers. 

One honorable mention may be pronounced for each 100 teachers. 

No one can obtain honorable mention Avho has not at least five 
years' experience as titulaire. 

No one can obtain the bronze medal unless he received honorable 
mention at least two years before. 

No one can obtain the silver medal unless he received the bronze 
medal at least two years before. 

Retired teachers may be given the title honorary, if they have 
had twenty -five years' active service and hold at least the bronze 
medal. They are permitted to take part in the pedagogic confer- 
ences of their cantons. 



FIFTEENTH CHAPTER. 
COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 

Primary instruction comprises : 
Morals and civics ; 
Reading and writing ; 

The French language and the elements of French literature ; 
Geography, particularly that of France ; 
History, particularly French history up to our own day ; 
Common notions of law and of political economy ; 
The elements of the natural sciences, physics and mathematics; 

their applications to agriculture, hygiene, the industrial arts ; 

manual training and use of tools of the principal trades ; 
The elements of drawing, modeling and music ; 
Gymnastics : 



53 

Military exercises, for the boys ; 
Needlework, for the ^rls. 

Primary instruction is obligatory for children of both sexes from 
6 to 13 years of ag-e. It may be given in primary or secondary 
schools, in public or private schools or in the family (by the father 
or by any person whom he may choose). 

A special regulation determines the means of assuring primary 
instruction to deaf-mutes and to the blind. 

Public primary schools are to be closed one day in each week in 
addition to Sunday, that parents may give their children religious 
instruction outside the school buildings, if they desire to do so. 
Religious instruction may not be given in the school buildings or 
their dependencies. 

Commissions Scolaiees. 

In each commune there is a school committee (commission scolaire), 
which supervises and encourages the frequentation of the schools. 
It is composed of the mayor or of an assistant delegated by him, as 
president ; of one of the cantonal delegates and, in communes com- 
prising several cantons, of as many delegates as there are cantons, 
appointed by the academy inspector; of members designated by 
the municipal council in number not exceeding one-third the mem- 
bers of the council. In case the municipal council fail to nominate 
these members, they are appointed by the prefect. 

At Paris and at Lyons there is a commission scolaire for each 
municipal arrondissement, presided over by the mayor or by an assist- 
ant designated by him. It is composed of one of the cantonal 
delegates appointed by the academy inspector, and of from three 
to seven members for each arrondissement, designated by the munici- 
pal council. 

The terms of members appointed by the municipal council expire 
with the election of a new council. 

The primary inspector is a member of all commissions scolaires in 
his district. 

The law of April 5, 1884, determines the question of eligibility to 
membership in a commission scolaire. 

The commission scolaire meets at least once in three months -on 
the call of the president or of the primary inspector. A majority 
of the members constitute a quorum for the transaction of business ; 
but if after two calls there is not a quorum, the commission scolaire 
may transact the special business for which it was convened provided 
the mayor or the assistant who takes his place, the primary inspector 
and the cantonal delegate are present. 



54 

Unexcused absence at three consecutive meetings works forfeiture 
of membership. 

A copy of the proceedings of the commission scolaire is to be for- 
warded by the president to the primary inspector within three days 
after the meeting. 

The commission scolaire may not interfere with matters and 
methods of instruction. 

The primary inspector, parents or guardians may appeal from 
decisions of commissions scolaires. The appeal, in the form of a 
simple letter, is to be addressed within six days, to the prefect and 
to the persons interested. It may be referred to the department 
council as a court of last resort. Parents or guardians may bo 
represented by attorneys before the department council. 

The sessions of the department councils and of commissions scolaires 
are not public. 

Cektificate of Primaey Studies. 

A certificate of primary studies {certificat d'etudes primaires) is 
awarded to those children who at the age of 11 years and upward 
complete successfully the public examination prescribed by law. 
Holders of this certificate are freed from the obligation to attend 
school. 

Cantonal commissions are appointed by the rectors, on the propo- 
sition of the academy inspectors, to judge of the fitness of candidates 
for the certificate of primary studies. These commissions meet 
annually on the call of the academy inspector. The primary 
inspector is the presiding ofticer. In the examination of girls, some 
members of the commission must be women. 

At the time prescribed by the academy inspector, each teacher 
prepares a list of the candidates in his school, with name, date and 
place of birth, residence of the family and signature of each candidate. 

Parents whose children do not attend school must furnish the 
same information. 

The list is certified by the mayor, and transmitted to the primary 
inspector. 

No candidate may be admitted who is under 11 years of age at the 
date of the examination. 

The examination is both written and oral. 

The written tests are under the supervision of the members of the 
commission, and are private. 

They include: 

1. An exercise in dictation of not more than fifteen lines ; the end 
of each sentence is indicated ; 



J- 



ARRONOISSEMENT 



REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE 

LIBCRTE, EGALITE, TRaTERNJTE 



Eeolede W/XO'Ai^^ 

Rue rJ^m^^A. 



_^/^ ^:S!^^^ 



Utile ^e Jjlnm 



c^y-^iVi^i^ ^^€-i^ ^-<2=^ t^^i^^''(^/:^^>'-e^ ac<^^ a> ^#«?^s%^y^ 






















Exercise in Dictation by French Boy 1'en Years of Age. 

The selection for this exercise was chosen by me and was dicta' ed to the class by the 
teacher, who indicated punctuation. The time allowed whs too short for careful and neat 
work. The other specimens are about the same. Thi^ work was done in the middle course 
of a public elementary school in P. iris. 



55 

2. Two questions in arithmetics, including- the metric system; 

3. A simple composition (story, letter, etc.). 

Girls are to execute a task in needlework under the supervision 
of a woman appointed for the purjoose. 

The time and credits allotted to each test are given in the follow- 
ing" table : 



Orthography*. 
Penmanship .. 
Arithmetic . . . 
Composition . . 
Necdleworlc... 



TEST. 



Time. 



1 hour 
1 hour 
1 hour 



Credits. 



Only those candidates are admitted to the oral examination who 
succeed in obtaining- at least 50 per cent of the total number of 
credits. Zero in any one test involves rejection. 

The oral tests are public. They take place before a si)ecial com- 
mission under the primary inspector as presiding- officer. 

They include : 

Reading with explanation, and the recitation of a selection chosen 
from a list presented by the candidate ; 

Questions in history and geography. 

Ten credits are allotted to each test. The oral examination is not 
to exceed fifteen minutes in length for each candidate. 

No one receives a certificate of primary studies who fails to obtain 
50 per cent of the total number of credits allotted to the written 
and oral examinations. 

On demand of candidates, linear drawing and agriculture may be 
included in the examination. 

Certificates mention complementary subjects in which candidates 
have attained 50 per cent. 

A report of the examination is forwarded to the academy inspector 
who satisfies himself as to the regularity of the proceedings and 
then issues certificates to successful candidates. 

In 1882, 91,153 certificates of primary studies were issued ; in 1887, 
the corresponding number reported was 144,046. 



•The text is read aloud, dictated, then reread, and Ave minutes are allowed candi- 
dates for corrections. 



66 

Other Provisions of the Compulsory Education Law. 

The father or g-uardian of a child subject to the compulsory educa- 
tion law must give the mayor of the commune notice at least 
fifteen days before the opening of the term whether the child is to 
receive instruction in the family, in a public or private school, indi- 
cating the school. 

Families living near several public schools may choose between 
these schools, whether they sre situated in their commune or not, 
provided the number of pupils does not exceed the maximum 
authorized by the regulations. In cases of dispute, the department 
council is the final court of appeal. 

The mayor prepares annually, with the assistance of the commis- 
sion scolaire, a list of all the children from 6 to 13 years of age, and 
advises parents and guardians of the date of the opening of the term. 

In case the parents or guardians fail to give notice fifteen days 
before the opening of the term, the child is enrolled by the mayor 
in one of the public schools and a notice is sent to the parents or 
guardian. 

Eight days before the opening of the term, the mayor submits to 
the directors of public and private schools a list of the children who 
ought to attend. A copy of this list is sent to the primary inspector. 

When a child leaves school, the parents or guardians must give 
notice immediately to the mayor, indicating how the child is to 
receive instruction in the future. 

Parents or guardians must inform the school-director of the reasons 
for temporary absences. 

School-directors must keep a register, showing for each class the 
attendance of pupils registered. At the end of each month they 
must send an abstract of this register to the mayor, indicating the 
number of absences and the reasons therefor. 

Excuses for absence are submitted to the commission scolaire. The 
only excuses; deemed sufficient are sickness of the child, death of a 
member of the family, detentions resulting from imperfect com- 
munications, accidental in character. Exceptional circumstances 
meet due consideration before the commission. 

Every director of a private school who fails to conform to the 
preceding prescriptions is reported by the commission and the 
primary inspector to the department council. The council may 
then pronounce the following punishments. 

a. Warning ; b. Censure -, c. Suspension for a month at the most, 
and, in case of repetition of the offense, for three months at most. 

When a child shall have been absent four times in one month, 
during at least one-half day, without justification by the commission, 










Exercise in Reproduction by German Boy Ten Years of Age. 

mrvi?t'n?? *^«':^,.«i^«° fo'- comparison is one of the best of the specimens prepared during 
Z^^t^^TS^:^::^:^^:^^''^^^' -- Ai..ia-Chapene.t''hou.h th^ 



ijority of the ela^s are nearly as good. 



57 

the father or g-uardian is asked at] least three days in advance to 
appear before the commission at the mayoralty. He is there 
reminded of the duty imposed by the law. 

In case of repetition of the offense within a twelvemonth, the 
child is posted for fifteen days or one month at the entrance to 
the mayoralty, with the full name and standing of the person 
responsible and with an indication of the charge. 

In case of a second repetition of the offense, the commission or 
the primary inspector lodge a complaint with the police justice, 
who pronounces sentences according to articles 479, 480 sq. of the 
penal code. Ai'ticle 463 of the same code is applicable. The com- 
mission scolaire may grant children living with parents or guardians, 
on reasonable demand, a dispensation of three months annually, 
exclusive of vacations. If the dispensation exceed fifteen days the 
primary inspector must approve. 

These dispositions are not applicable to children accompanying 
their parents or guardians when absenting themselves temporarily 
from the commune. In this case a verbal or written notice to the 
mayor suffices. No child under 12 can be employed industrially 
unless in actual attendance on a public or private school. Every 
child employed industrially who is under 12 years of age must 
attend school during leisure hours. He must receive daily at least 
two hours' instruction, if a special school is attached to the indus- 
trial establishment. A record of attendance is kept by the teacher 
and transmitted weekly to the patron. No child under 15 is per- 
mitted to work more than six hours a day, unless he produces a cer- 
tificate from the teacher or primary inspector, legalized by the 
mayor, that he has received elementary primary instruction. 

The commission scolaire, with the approval of the department coun- 
cil, may dispense children employed industrially and having 
attained the age of apprenticeship from one of the two classes of 
the day. The same dispensation may be granted to children 
employed outside of their families in agriculture. 

Children receiving instruction in the family must pass each year, 
beginning with the end of the second year of the compulsory 
period, an examination on the work done in public schools by 
pupils of their age. The forms and programs of these examinations 
are' determined by ministerial decrees, rendered in higher council 
{conseil superieur). 

The examining committee is composed of the primary inspector 
or his delegate, as chairman ; a cantonal dBlegate ; a person holding 
a university diploma or brevet of capacity. The judges are chosen 
by the academy inspector. 
8 



58 

If the examination of the child is unsatisfactory and an excuse is 
not admitted by the committee, the parents or guardians must send 
the chikl, within eight days of the notification, to a public or 
private school, and inform the mayor what school has been chosen. 
In case this is not done by the parent or guardian, it will be done 
through the mayoralty. 

School cais^es, designed to encourage and facilitate the frequenta- 
tion of schools by recompensing the studious and assisting the 
diligent, are established in each commune (Law of April 10, 1807). 

The revenues of these caisses depend on voluntary subscriptions, 
grants from the commune, the department and the State. They 
may also be authorized by prefects to receive gifts and legacies. 

In subsidized communes where the value of the centime does not 
exceed thirty francs, the caisse is entitled, on the credit opened for 
this purpose at the ministry of public instruction, to a grant equal at 
least to the total of the communal grants. 

The distribution of succor is made through the commission scolaire. 
Ministerial decrees, given on demand of academy inspectors and 
department councils, fix each year the communes in which, owing to 
insufficient school accommodations, the provisions of the Compul- 
sory Education Act can not be strictly enforced. The minister 
reports these communes annually to the chambres. 

An examination of the statistics relating to compulsory education 
shows that France has no reason to blush as regards her school 
accommodations. Would that we were able to say the same for 
New York. As we think, however, of the thousands of children who 
are shut out of school entirely owing to the lack of accommodations, 
we are far from satisfied with the results of our school work.* 



SIXTEENTH CHAPTEK. 
EXPENSES OF PUBLIC PKIMARY INSTRUCTION AND SALARIES. 
Law of July 19, 1889. 
Art. 1. — The ordinary expenses of public primary instruction are 
paid by the State, the departments and the communes. 
Art. 2. — The State pays : 

a. The salaries of employes in public elementary schools and 
ecoles maternelles ; 

* We should have statistics showiner the number of children in New York between C 
and Vi years of age, and the registration and attendance of these ehildi en in elementary 
schools. Comparisons based on these figures would atTord a strong argument for the 
©uactmeut of an eflective compulsory education law. 



59 

b. The salaries of employes in upper primary schools and manual 
training schools ; 

c. The supplements referred to in articles 8 and 9 ; 

d. The salaries of employes in normal schools ; 

e. The salaries of administrative and supervising officers ; 

f. Traveling expenses of supervising officers ; 

g. The maintenance of students in normal schools and other 
expenses of these schools not specially provided for ; 

h. The allowance (twenty dollars) for the silver medal. 

Art. 3. — The departments pay : 

a. The allowance of at least forty dollars to primary inspectors ; 

h. The maintenance of normal school buildings ; 

c. The maintenance of the furniture and teaching supplies of nor- 
mal schools ; 

d. The rent and maintenance of the office and furniture for the 
department service of public instruction ; 

e. The office expenses of the academy inspector ; 

/. The cost of books and pamphlets used by the cantonal delega- 
tions and the academic administration ; 

g. The allowances made to foremen, assistants and workmen 
charged by the departments with agricultural, commercial or indus- 
trial instruction in all primary schools and in technical schools ruled 
by the law of December 11, 1880. 

Art. 4. — The communes pay : 

a. The allowance for lodgings referred to in article 12. 

b. The maintenance and location of primary school buildings ; the 
lodgings of teachers or the allowances therefor ; 

c. The cost of heating and lighting the primary schools ; 

d. The wages of servants in public ecoles maternelles, and (if there 
be any) in other public primary schools ; 

e. The acquisition, maintenance and replacement of school fur- 
niture and teaching supplies ; 

/. The cost of registers, books and pamphlets used in the schools ; 

g. The allowances made to foremen, assistants and workmen 
charged by the communes with agricultural, commercial or indus- 
trial instruction in primary schools of all grades and in technical 
schools ruled by the law of December 11, 1880. 

Art. 5. — Upper primary schools and complementary courses cease 
to be maintained by the State if the total number of pupils for three 
consecutive years is less than fifteen for each year of the course in 
upper primary schools, and twelve for each year of the course in 
the cours complementaires. 



60 



SALARIES. 

Citations fkom the Law of July 19, 1889. 

Art. 6. — Male and female teachers are divided into stagiaires and 
titulaires* 

Art. 7. — The titulaires are divided into five classes. The salaries 
are fixed as follows : 





Males. 


Females. 


Fifth class 


$200 
240 
300 
360 
400 


$200 


Fourth class 


240 


Third class 


280 


Second class 


300 


First class 


320 







A7^t. 8. — Titulaires in charg-e of a school with more than two classes 
receive a supplement of forty dollars, which is increased to eig-hty 
dollars if the school have more than four classes. 

Art. 9. — In schools with a complementary course, the teacher in 
charge of the same receives a supplement of forty dollars. 

Art. 10. — In addition to salary, titulaires are entitled to lodpfings 
or to an allowance therefor, as set forth under article 12. 

Art. 11. — Stagiaires, male and female, receive a salary of $160 and 
lodgings, or an allowance therefor, as set forth under article 12. 

Art. 12. — The allowance for lodgings for teachers referred to in 

articles 8, 9, 14 and 15 is determined according to the following 

table : 

Close population of locality. Allowance. 

Less than 1,000, if chefs-lieux ; 1.000 to 3.000, if not $20 

3,001 to 9,000 40 

9.001 to 12,000 60 

12,001 to 18,000 80 

18,001 to 35,000 100 

35.001 to 00,000 120 

60,001 to 100,000 140 

Above 100,000 160 

In the city of Paris 400 



For all other titulaires the allowances are one-half the above figures. 
The allowances of stagiaires are one-quarter the above figures. 

* stagiaires are on probation and are appointed by the academy inspectors. They 
onstitute about 20 per cent of the teaehiner force. Titulairi'!' are in full standing and 
are appointed by the prefects from lists prepared by the department councils. 



61 

In cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and in the communes 
of the department of the Seine, the allowance may be increased. * 

Art. 13. — Directors, directresses and assistants in upper primary 
schools ; directors and professors of normal schools ; normal school 
stewards and primary inspectors are divided into five classes. 

Art. 14. — The salaries of directors and directresses of upper pri- 
mary schools are fixed as follows : 

Fifth class .• $360 

Fourth class , 400 

Third class 440 

Second class 600 

First class 560 



They receive in addition lodgings or the allowance therefor as 
provided in article 12. 

Art. 15. — The salaries of assistants in upper primary schools are 
fixed as follows : 

Fifth class $220 

Fou rth class 260 

Third class 320 

Second class 380 

First class 420 



In addition lodgings or allowance therefor as set forth in article 12. 

Special teachers receive an allowance of from ten dollars to twenty 
dollars a year for each hour of instruction per week. 

Art. 16. — In the national schools of upper primary and technical 
instruction, the salaries of each class are $100 more than those paid 
in normal schools for males. 

Art. 17. — The salaries of directors and directresses of normal 
schools are fixed as follows : 





Directors. 


Directresses. 


Fifthclass 


$700 

800 

900 

1,000 

1,100 


$600 


Fourth class 




Third class 


800 


Second class 


900 


First class 









In Paris the salary of the director is from $1,400 to 
directress, from $1,200 to $1,800. 



1,000; of the 



* October 25, 1891, the educational congress ( Gongres de la ligue de V enseignemeut) adopted 
resolutions demanding a return to the scale of salaries in force previous to 1889, and an 
equal allowance for lodgings for all teachers, after January l, 1892. 



Art. 18. 
follows : 



62 

-The salaries of normal school professors are fixed as 





Males. 


Females. 


Fifth class 


$480 
520 
560 
620 
680 


$410 


Fourth class 


480 


Third class 


520 


Second class 


660 


First class 


600 







Male and female teachers not holding- the certificate of capacity 
for a professorship receive salaries of $400 and $360 respectively. 

All salaries g:iven above are eighty dollars less if teachers are 
odged and fed in the schools. 

Art. 19. — Salaries of teachers and other employes in advanced 
normal schools {ecoles normales superieures d'enseignement primaire) are 
fixed by a special regulation. 

Art. 20. — Directors, directresses and assistants in upper primary 
schools, holding the certificate of capacity for a professorship in 
normal schools, receive an allowance of $100. 

Art. 21. — In normal schools with less than sixty students, the 
^duties of steward are confided to one of the teachers, who receives 
an allowance of $100 therefor. 

In normal schools with more than sixty students, the stewards 
give no instruction save in writing and book-keeping. Their salaries 
are fixed as follows : 

Fifth class $360 

Fourth class 400 

Third class 440 

Second class 500 

First class 560 

In addition, they are entitled to lodgings. 

Art. 22. — The salaries of primary inspectors are fixed as follows: 

Fifth class $60O 

Fourth class 700 

Third class 800 

Second class — 900 

First class 1,000 



In the department of the Seine, the salaries are $1,200, $1,300, 
$1,400, $1,500 and $1,600. 



63 

Primary inspectresses may be named under the same conditions 
and in the same form as the inspectors. 

Art. 23. — In addition to the salaries as above, primary inspectors 
are entitled to a department allowance of at least forty dollars. 

Art. 24.— Promotion is from class to class. Teachers of the fifth 
and fourth classes may not be promoted to a higher class without an 
experience of five years in the class to which they belong-. 

Promotion to the second and first class requires the brevet super- 
ieur, and at least three years' experience in the class next below. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

It is interesting to note the approximate equalization of wages 
paid male and female teachers. In many grades of work, as will be 
seen, there is absolutely no distinction made between male and 
female teachers. 

The table of allowances made for lodgings illustrates the fact that 
city life is more expensive than country life. 



SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER. 
MILITARY SERVICE.* 

EXTEACTS FEOM THE LaW OF JULY 19, 1889. 

Art. 1. — Every Frenchman is subject to military service. 

Art. 23. — The following persons are dismissed in times of peace 
after one year's military service : 

Young men under bonds to serve ten years in public instruction, 
in national institutions for the deaf and dumb or blind. 

Lay teachers, novices and members of religious bodies devoted to 
instruction which is of public utility, and who are under bonds to 
serve ten years in the French schools of the Orient and of Africa. 

All persons above enumerated are recalled for four weeks during 
the year preceding their passage to the reserve of the active army; 
They then follow the lot of the class to which they belong. 

Art. 24. — Young men who do not succeed in finding an employ- 
ment as teachers during the year following their year of military 
service, or who cease to be employed at the expiration of the time ; 
young men who, in the year of military service, have failed to meet 
the conditions established by the Minister of War must serve the 
two years from which they have been exempted. 

*We publish only certain extracts relative to persons connected with primary 
Instruction. 



64 

Art. 25. — When the causes for which exemption have been made 
cease to operate, the young- men who have been exempted become 
subject to all the obligations of the class to which they belong-. 

They may marry without authorization. 

Art. 26. — A list of the young- men of each department, exempted 
under the law, is published in the Bulletin administratif, and 
the names of persons exem^Dted in each commune are posted, at the 
entrance to the mayoralty. In case of war, they are summoned to 
march with the men of their class. 

Art. 51. — In case of mobilization, only those specified in official 
lists are freed from immediate military service. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

American visitors to French schools for boys will note at once the 
atmosphere of war by which they are surrounded. 

The targ-et practice and drill of the school battalions, and the mili- 
tary exercises in g-eneral, may aid the physical development of the 
pupils, but the earnestness of the instruction sug-gests unpleasant 
possibilities. 

EIGHTEENTH CHAPTEE. 
PENSIONS.* 

Primary inspectors ; directresses and assistants in normal schools ; 
communal teachers and assistants ; communal directresses of salles 
d' asile {ecoles maternelles and classes enfantines) are among the 
employes entitled to pensions under the law of June 9, 1853. 

The amount of the pension is not to be less than $120 for a male 
teacher and $100 for a female teacher. This minimum does not 
apply to those pensioned exceptionally owing to infirmities. 

The amount of the pension is based on the mean of the salarj^ and 
emoluments for the six years during which these figures were the 
greatest (Law of August 17, 1876). It is never to exceed three- 
quarters of the average salary of these years. 

The right to a pension is acquired at 60 years of age and after 
thirty years' service. Persons connected with primary instruction 
acquire this right at 55 years of age and after twenty five years' 
service, provided they have passed fifteen years in what is called 
the partie active. 

* Civil pensions and th« Ictw of 1889 relative to salaries have been among the subjects 
of general discussion in France in 1891. Several projficts have been proposed relative 
to civil penbions, including the proposition of M. Camille Crousset to abolish them 
entirely. 



65 

The years passed at the normal schools after the ag-e of 20 are 
included in making up the years of service. 

The law of 1853 provides for pensions in special cases, including 
those paid widows of persons who die under certain conditions in 
the public service. 

NINETEENTH CHAPTEB. 
ECOLES MATEENELLES AND CLASSES ENFANTINES. 

General Organization. 

The ecoles maternelles are Kindergarten in which children of both 
sexes, from 2 to 6 years of age, receive together the care which 
their physical, moral and intellectual development demand. 

The classes enfantines, annexed to a lower primary school or to an 
ecole maternelle, are for children of both sexes from 4 to 7 years of 
age. These infant classes form the mean between the ecole maternelle 
and the primary school. In addition to the training of the ecole 
maternelle, children receive primary instruction. 

No child is received in an ecole maternelle without a certificate of 
admission, signed by the mayor, and a duly legalized medical cer- 
tificate, establishing the fact that he has ueen vaccinated and has 
no contagious disease. 

The training in the ecoles maternelles and classes enfantines includes : 

a. Games, calisthenics with musical accompaniment ; 

b. Manual exercises ; 

c. First principles of moral education ; 

d. Knowledge of common things ; 

e. Language exercises; 

/. Elements of drawing, reading, writing and number. 

The regulations touching the building and furnishing of the ecoles 
maternelles are set forth below under a special Jiead (page 72). 

No one can be appointed a directress of an ecole maternelle who 
does not hold the certificat d'aptitude pedagogique and has not attained 
the age of 25 with two years' experience in public or private ecoles 
maternelles. 

The children of public e'coles materndles are divided into two 
sections according to age and development. 

If the average attendance exceeds fifty, the directress has an assist- 
ant. The directress and assistant alternate in the two divisions. 

A femme de service is attached to each ecole maternelle. This ser- 
vant is appointed and discharged by the directress, with the consent 
of the mayor. She is paid by the commune. 
9 



66 

The department council in each department issues regulations for 
the public ecoles maternelles, following the plan of the decree of the 
■ minister in higher council. 

In each commune where there is an ecole maternelle, there 
may be one or several committees of patronesses, presided over by 
the mayor. The members of these committees are appointed by the 
academy inspector, with the advice of the mayor. The duties of 
these committees are to watch over the sanitary regulations, the 
proper care of the establishment and the use of funds or gifts in 
favor of the children. 

A physician appointed by the mayor visits once a week the ecoles 
maternelles, entering his observations on a register kept for the 
purpose. 

After an absence due to sickness, no child is readmitted without a 
medical certificate of complete recovery. 

The directress reports annually in detail all matters relating to 
the establishment. This report is submitted to the department 
inspectress, or the primary inspector. 

Without special permission of the primary inspector, children 
may not pass from the ecole maternelle or classe enfantme to the primary 
school, except in October, in January and at Easter. No ecole mater- 
nelle may receive more than 150 pupils without a special authoriza- 
tion from the academy inspector. 

Ecoles maternelles are open from March 1 to November 1, from 
7 A. M. to 7 P. M., from November 1 to March 1 from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. 
These hours may be modified according to local needs by the acad- 
emy inspector on demand of the mayor. 

Ecoles maternelles may not be closed except Sundaj^s ; January 1st 
and 2d, Ascension day; Monday of Whitsuntide; the day of the 
Assumption -, All Saints' day ; Christmas day ; the day of the 
national /ete; from Thursday before Easter to Thursday after Easter ; 
the first fortnight in August. 

Directresses of ecoles maternelles, with a single class, may not 
take other vacations. In ecoles maternelles, with several classes, a 
vacation of one month is accorded annually to the directress or 
assistant alternately. 

Parents neglecting to call for their children according to the 
rales are warned, and, if the neglect occurs again, the children are sent 
home to stay. This may not be done, however, except by the 
academy inspector on proposal of the directress and with consent 
of the committee of patronage. Children may take the midday 
meal at the school. 



67 

The ecole maternelle is to be kept in a constaut state of cleanliness 
and salubrity. It is to be swept and scrubbed every day. The air 
is to be frequently renewed. 

On arrival of the children at the school, the directress is to 
assure herself of their state of health and cleanliness. She is to 
exact that each be provided with a handkerchief, and that the lunch 
basket contain, in addition to the food, a cover and a napkin. 

It is an interesting- sight to see all these little ones drawn up in 
line undergoing- the tour of inspection. Every child with dirty 
face or hands is whisked off at once to be scrubbed. Some of the 
bath-rooms are beautifully finished and furnished. They look as if 
they might have been made for the court of the King of Lilliput. 

Before entering the exercise-hall the children are conducted to 
privies, where they are always watched by the < irectress and assistant. 

Good marks, pictures and playthings are given as rewards. 

At the end of each month the cards for good marks are exchanged 
for pictures and playthings. The distribution of prizes is not 
allowed. 

The only punishments permitted are deprivation for a short time 
of the tasks and common games ; recall of the cards for good marks. 

Directresses and assistants may not receive presents from the 
pupils or parents. 

Petitions, subscriptions and lotteries are not allowed. 

No species of domestic animals are allowed in the parts of schools 
reserved for the children. 

It is forbidden to overburden the memory of children with dia- 
logues and dramatic scenes for public celebrations. 

PEDAGOGIC OEGANIZATION. 

In each public ecole maternelle the gradation of the pupils is 
made annually, at the time of the opening of the primary schools, 
by the directress under the control of the department inspectress, or 
the primary inspector. 

The weekly time-table for each ecole maiernelle is arranged by the 
directress, with the approval of the department inspectress, or of 
the primary inspector. 

Object. — The object of the ecole maternelle is the commencoment of 
physical, moral and intellectual education. 

The ecole maternelle is not a school in the ordinary sense of the 
word. It forms the passage from the family io the school. It pre- 
serves the affection and indulgent gentleness of the family, and 
at the same time initiates into the work and regularity of the school 



68 

The success of the directress is not determined by the knowledg-e 
communicated, by the mean of instruction, by the number and dura- 
tion of the tasks ; but by the ensemble of good influences to which the 
child is subjected, by the pleasure he learns to take in school, by the 
habits of ordo-, cleanliness, politeness,* attention, obedience and 
mental activity which he acquires in playing. 

Directresses should not endeavor to send to the primary school 
children already far advanced in their instruction. They should aim 
to send children prepared to receive instruction. All the exercises 
should follow this general principle. They should aid the develop- 
ment of the various faculties of the child without fatigue, without (con- 
straint, without excessive application. They are intended to make him 
love school and to give him in early life a taste for work, never impos- 
ing tasks incompatible with the feebleness and mobility of early child- 
hood. The end to attain, in taking into account the different tempera- 
ments, the precocity of some and the dullness of others, is not that all 
should attain the same knowledge of reading, writing and number ; but 
that they know well the little they know ; that they love their tasks, 
their games, their lessons ; that they ac(iuire no distaste for their 
first school exercises which become so repugnant if the patience, 
vivacity and ingenious affection of the mistress find no means to 
vary them. 

Good health ; hearing, sight and touch, already exercised by a grad- 
uated succession of those little games and little experiences which aid 
in edvicating the senses ; childish ideas, but plain and clear, touching 
the first elements of that which is to be later primary instruction ; a 
foundation of habits and dispositions on which the school may lean 
later in giving regular in&truction; taste for gymnastics, singing, draw- 
ing, pictures, recitals ; eagerness in listening, in seeing, in observ- 
ing, in imitating, in questioning, in answering ; a certain faculty of 
attention, cherished by obedience, confidence and good humor ; the 
intelligence awakened and the soul opened to all good moral impres- 

* Both in France and Germany teachers pay careful attention to the manners of the 
pupils. They are invariably polite. In France, upon the entrance of a stranger, the boys 
rise at once and give him the military salute, the girls rise and bow. They always remain 
standing until asked to take their seats. In the Kindergarten Wcolen materticUes) polite- 
ness often takes a still more exaggerated form of salute. Thte pupils await standing the 
signal of the teacher and then throw kisses toward the stranger. This is somewhat 
embarrassing, as the teacher is apt to watch the guest in order to see if all these kisses 
are wafted back as gracefully as they are sent. 

But the politeness of these school children is not confined to the class-room. After 
having visited many schools in Germany and France, I used to meet quite often some 
of the boys upon the street. They invariably removed their hats. Not once in the course 
of my visitations in either country did I note a case of rudeness or vulgarity. 

I am compelled to admit that the lessons in manuers are much more effective in 
French and German schools than in our own. 



69 

sions : these oug-ht to be the effects and results of the years at the 
ecole maternelle. If the child has this preparation for the primary 
school, a few pages more or less of the primary syllabus are of little 
importance. 

Method. — The method is indicated by the name of the establish- 
ment. It consists in imitating- as closely as possible the form of 
training adopted by an intelligent a,nd devoted mother. 

The ecole maternelle should not develop one order of faculties at the 
expense of the others. All should be developed in harmony. Special 
methods founded on exclusive and artificial systems are not advis- 
able. The simplest exercises of all methods should be chosen in 
order to form a course which will minister to the different needs of 
the little child and bring all his faculties into play. The exercises 
should have a great variety. Object lessons, conversation, singing^ 
the first attempts at drawing, reading, number and recitation should 
divide the time with physical exercises, games and gymnastics. 
This method is essentially natural, familiar, always open to progress, 
and always susceptil^le of development and reformation. 

Division of the course. — The games are divided into those for the 
preau and those for the cour. Separate playthings are furnished for 
each. 

Musical instruction comprises songs in unison and in two parts 
which accompany the games and evolutions. The mistress uses a 
tuning-fork. 

The manual exercises consist in plaiting, weaving, folding, stitch- 
ing, cutting, knitting, bead-stringing, and the performance of tasks 
with cardboard, straws, sand, etc. Needlework and all other tasks 
of a nature to fatigue the children are forbidden. 

The first jDrinciples of moral training are given in the form of 
familiar conversation, recitals and songs destined to inspire a sense 
of duty toward the family, France and God. This instruction must 
not be of a confessional character. 

The common information {connaissances usuelles) includes elemen- 
tary notions of clothing, food and dwelling; of man, animals, plants 
and rocks, of color and form, the division of time, the seasons; of 
the cardinal points, of France and the principal countries of the 
earth. This instruction is given with the aid of objects, and repre- 
sentations of objects. 

Language work, connected with all exercises, aims to accustom 
the children to express their ideas simply and correctly, and to 
increase their vocabularies according to the development of their 
intelligence and of their needs. 



70 



The elemeuts of drawing- comprise, — 

a. Combinations of lines by use of sticks, etc. ; reproduction of 
these combinations on the slate, and of easy drawings of the mis- 
tress on the blackboard. 

h. Reproduction on slate and paper of common objects, and of 
very simple ornaments. 

Instruction in reading- embraces only usual words and simple 
phrases. Children should use movable letters in learning- to read. 

Instruction in both reading- and writing- is given only to the chil- 
dren of the first section. 

The elements of number include, — 

a. The formation and representation of the numbers from one to 
ten, and from ten to 100 by the aid of sticks, pebbles, coin, common 
measures, etc., placed in the hands of pu])ils. 

b. The four operations applied to the first hundred always with 
the aid of objects. 

c. The representation of the first hundred by figures. 

Children are exercised in mental calculation on all the numbers 
studied. 

The recitals or stories, based as much as possible on objects or 
representations of objects, should embrace scenes in child-life. 
Anecdotes, descriptions, biographic sketches and accounts of travel 
should give an idea of and encourage a love for France. The intel- 
lectual exercises and the manual should alternate, and should be 
separated by songs and games. 

The following sp(;cial program illustrates the monthly division of 
object lessons in the first section. For full course, see pages 98-109, 
under Infant course. 

OCTOBEK. 



Object Lessons. 

Recitals, conxHi'Aatlons, qneations, shmnhio 
the objectn to the children as much as pos- 
sible. 

Vintage.— yine, erape. wine. — Vat, cask, 
bottle, glass, stopper, liter. — Apple, 
cider.— Hops, beer. 



Drawing. 
J)ranun(is made by mistress on blackboard.— 

Pupils reproduce only those which are 

simple enough to find a place in the course 

beloic. 
Grape, leaf, wine-press, vat, ca^k, bottle, 

glass, funnel, liter. 

Songs and Games. 
(7b be executed by the clddren.) Autumn 
(Delbruck).— The Cooper. 



November. 



Object Lessons. 
riovghing.— PlouRh.- Sowing. 
Lii.iliting —Candle, wax- candle, lamp, gas. 
Light-bouse. 



Drawing. 
Piorieh-share, harrow. 
Candlo-stick, lamp, gas-burner, light- 
house. 

BoN(w and Games. 

Labor.— Sowing (Mnie. Pape-Carpantier). 



71 



December. 



Object Lessons. 
Heating. — Cold, snow, ice, avalanches : 
Switzerland, Alps ; skates, sleighs. — 
Thermometers . — Stove, chimneys. — 
Wood, coal, matches. — Chilblains, 
colds.— Fireside, family. 



!Dkawing. 
Skate, sleigh, thermometer, stove, chim- 
ney, bellows, shovel, tongs, fire-pump. 

Songs and Games. 

Little Chimney-sweeper (Mme. Pape-Car- 
pantier).— Fire (Delbruck). 



January. 

Object Lessons. 
New Fea?*.— Movement of the earth around 
the sun; congratulations; New Year 
gifts, charity; oranges, chestnuts. 



Glothing— Furs, rugs, quilts, woolen, cot- 
ton, sheets, flannel, weaving, spinning, 
dyeing, needles, pins. 



Drawing. 
Sphere; oranges, chestnuts; money-box. 
scissors, tape-line. 



Songs and Games, 
Winter,— Happy New Year (Delbruck). 
Little Knitters (Delcasso). 



Object Lessons. 

Human &odj/.— Principal organs of the 
senses. 

J'bod.— Meats and drinks ; baker, butcher, 
fruiterer, grocer; hunger, appetite, indi- 
gestion. 



February. 

Dbawing. 

Eye, ear, nose, hand ; kitchen range, sauce- 
pan, stove, kettle, pot, gridiron. 



Songs and Games. 
Gymnastics (Laino). 
Bread (Delbruck), 



March. 



Object Lessons. 
Dwelling.— Wood, stone, iron, brick; slate, 
plaster, lime, tile, thatch, zinc; different 
industries. 

Bees.— Rive, cells, wax, honey 



Dbawing. 
House, window, door; table, bed; chair, 
wardrobe, bureau, wall, layers of stone, 
of brick ; plan of a house, frame-work ; 
hammer, saw, pincers, square, compass, 
plumb-line, hod, trowel. 

Songs and Games. 
Little Workmen. 
Bees' Patrol (Mme. Pape-Carpantier). 



April. 



Object Lessons. 

Vegetation.— Qrains, roots, stems, flowers, 
etc. 

Insects. — MaLY beetle, caterpillar, silk- 
worm. 

Birds' nes^s.- Services the birds render 
us; swallows. 



Dbawing. 
Flowers, leaves, beans, peas, potatoes. 

Songs and Games. 
Spring (Delbruck). 
Silkworm (Mme. Pape-Carpantier). 



May. 



Object Lessons. 
TFa<er.— Brook, stream, river, sea, cold 

baths, swimming. 
Fishing.— Salt and fresh water flsh. 
Washing.— Soap, cleanliness. 



Dbawing. 
Bath-tub. 

Boat, flsh-hook, net, line, flsh. 
Bucket, pump, fountain, well, washing- 
beater. 

Songs and Games. 



Vive I'eau '. (Delbruck). 
Provence. 



Bourgeois of 



72 



Object Lessons. 
/''ann.— Hiiymakinsr.— Horse, uhs, shep- 
lierd-doK, wolf, Bheep, pigs, turkeys, 
hens, geese, ducks, pleeons.— Dairy, 
milk, butter, cheese. 



June. 

Drawing. 
Pau, churn, milk-can. 

Songs and Games. 
Little Shepherd. 



Haymaklne (Delcasso). 



Oii.iKCT Lessons. 
tS<o»'m.— Lightning, thunder, hail, wind, 

lightning-rod, rainbow. 
Fruits.— Cherries, strawberries, apricots, 

pears, apples, plums. 



July. 

Dbawino. 
House, llghtnlng-rod ; rainbow, umbrella. 



Cherry, apricot, pear, apple, plum. 

Songs and Games. 
Summer. 
Fruit-merchant (Delbruck). 



August, 



Object Lessons. 

Harvest.— Vfheat, barley, oats, flour, bread, 
dough, oven, baker, pastry-cook. 

I'of/affcs.— Highroads, railways, steam- 
boats; map, cardinal points, compass. 
magnet ; i-aces of men, France, the world. 



Drawing. 

Sheaf.spike of wheat ; scythe, sickle ; wind- 
mill, grindstone; scales, weights. 

Locomotive, rails; sailboat, steamboat; 
oais, rudder, compass. 

Songs and Games. 
Game of Wheat (Mme. Pape-Carpantler). 
Around the World. 



September. 



Object Lessons. 

y/(t//Y(n(7.— Roebuck, deer, wild boar, wolf, 
fox. hare, rabbit, partridge, lark, quail; 
gun. 

Village frtc.-Yiiiv, shop, fire-works, pow- 
der, money. 



Drawing. 
Hunting-horn, game-bag, gun. 
Coin and bank-notes. 

Songs and Games. 
Fox (Delcasso). 



CONSTRUCTION AND riTENlTURE OF ECOLES 
MATEllNELLES. 

Tho tcole maternelle comprises, 

a. A vestibule with waiting room for parents ; 

h. One or two exercise halls ; 

c. A covered and closed conrt ( prrau) ; 

d. A kitchen for preparing- or Avanninj2f the food of the children ; 
e.. A playg-ronnd with small g-arden ; 

/. An abri with privies and urinals for the children ; 
g. Lodg-inj^s for the directress and for one or several assistants, 
according to necessity. 

General conditions. 
Art. 1.— The site should be central and airy, properly drained, 
accessible, removed from every noisy, insalubrious or dangerous 
establishment, and at least 100 meters from cemeteries. 



73 

The site must contain 400 meters, and should be reckoned at 
about 8 meters per child. 

Art. 2. — The disposition of the buildings should be determined 
according- to the climate, considering sanitary conditions, exposure, 
configuration and dimensions of site, and especially the distance of 
adjacent buildings. 

In case the e-cole maternelle form part of a groupe scolaire, it should 
not be placed between the boys' and girls' schools. 

Art. 3. — All rooms used by children should be on the ground floor, 
which should be raised above the level of the ground by three 15 
centimeter steps. 

Art. 4. — No foreign service may be lodged in the school bviildings. 

Exercise halls. 

Art. 5. — If there are several halls of exercise, they are not to be 
adjoining. They should communicate with the covered court 
{preau), either directly or by halls at least 1.50 meters broad. 

Art. 6.— Exercise halls are to be rectangular, with 4 meter ceiling 
and a maximum width of 8 meters. They should be calculated to 
assure each child a minimum of 80 centimeters. 

Art. 7. — Floor is to be of hard wood, laid as far as possible on 
bitumen. Pine may be used where the wood is common on condition 
that the strips are narrow and properly oiled. If there is no cellar, 
the flooring is to be laid on a platform of waterproof materials. 

Art. 8. — ^The ceiling is to be flat and smooth. A line is to be traced 
thereon indicating north and south. There is to be no cornice 
around the walls. The angles formed by walls or partitions with 
each other or with the ceilings are to be rounded 10 centimeters in 
radius. All inside walls are to be covered with a polished coating 
permitting frequent cleansing. They should be wainscotted in 
wood to the height of 1 meter. 

Art. 9. — Single doors are preferable. They should be 90 centi- 
meters broad. Doors opening directly from the exercise halls into 
streets, highways or courts are not allowed. 

Art. 10. — Light from the ceiling is not allowed. 

The windows should be on the two longitudinal walls of the exer- 
cise halls. They should be rectangular or slightly arched. The 
number and dimensions should be calculated to light all parts 
of the hall. The distance between the bottom of the lintel and the 
bottom of the ceiHng should be about 20 centimeters. The sill, 
with sloping faces, should not be more than 1.20 meters from the 
ground. The French sashes are to be divided horizontally into two 
pieces, opening separately for ventilation. 
10 



74 

Art. 11. — Each hall is to have a stove provided with a water-box 
with evaporating- surface. The stoves are to be covered with a 
double coverings of metal or terra cotta. They are to be surrounded 
with an iron grating and are not to have either oven or dish- warmer. 
The stove-pipe should in no case pass over the heads of the chil- 
dren. The children are not to be placed nearer the stove than 1.25 
meters. Cast-iron stoves a feu direct are forbidden. 

Art. 12. — In connection with the heating, proper ventilation is to 
be secured. Orifices for pure air, which ought to be taken directly 
from the outer air, and orifices for the escape of vitiated air should 
have a sufficient section to prevent obstructions. 

Court, kitchen and play-ground. 

Art. 13. — The surface of the court is to allow about 80 centimeters 
for each j)upil. The ceiling is to be 4 meters high. 

The court is to be constructed in accordance with articles 5, 6, 7, 
8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. 

Art. 14. — The kitchen is to be in convenient communication with 
the court. It is to have air and light directly from the outer air. 

The floor is to be paved with brick, tile or flagstones, or cemented. 

Art. 15. — The surface of the playground should allow about three 
meters for each pupil. It is not to have less than 150 meters. 

Art. 16. — The ground is to be covered with sand. Bitumen, pave- 
ment or cement are not to be employed except for the passages and 
the walks, which should never project. In case the soil slant, the 
declivity should never exceed three centimeters per meter. The 
ground is to be leveled to insure proper drainage of surface water. 
Slops should never cross the playground in an uncovered channel. 

Art. 17. — Trees should be set out in the playground at convenient 
distances from the buildings, and arranged in a manner to allow 
necessary space for exercise and games for the children. A small 
garden should be annexed to the playground. 

Privies. 

Art. 18.— Every ecole maternelle should have separate privies for 
the sexes, and urinals for the boj^s. These should be in communi- 
cation with the court (preau) by means of an abri. 

Art. 19. — The privies should be so placed that prevalent winds 
blow not toward the buildings and the playground. They are to be 
divided into cabins, one for about 15 pupils. Each cabin is to be 55 
centimeters in length and 80 centimeters in depth. 

Art. 20. — The seat is to be of wood about 23 centimeters high and 
slightly inclined in front. The orifice should be oblong, about 20 



75 

centimeters by 14 centimeters. It should not be more than 5 
centimeters from the edg-e. The basin should be furnished with a 
stop-valve. 

Aii. 21. — The urinals should be equal in number to the privies. 
The boxes should be about 35 centimeters wide, 25 centimeters deep 
and 70 centimeters high. 

Art. 22. — The sides and floor of the privies and urinals should be 
of impervious materials. All the angles should be rounded. The 
privies are to be so constructed that water will run towards the seat 
and escape through an opening above the stop-valve. A service of 
water is to be provided for cleansing- purposes. 

Art. 23. — The vaults are to be fixed or movable. Movable vaults 
are preferable. They are to be provided with ventilators. Station- 
ary vaults are to be small, but not less than 2 meters in leng-th, 
breadth and height. They are to be arched, constructed of imper- 
vious materials and coated with cement. They should be stanch 
and the bottom should be in the form of a basin. The exte- 
rior angles should be rounded 25 centimeters in radius. They 
are to be placed far from the wells. They are to be fitted with a 
ventilating- pipe, to be raised as hig-h above the privies as the neigh- 
boring- buildings make necessary. 

A7't. 24. — The urinals and privies are not to have bolts or other 
fastenings. They are to be masked by a partition 60 centimeters 
distant from the cabins. This partition, raised 15 centimeters from 
the ground, is not to be more than 70 centimeters high. 

Lodgings. 

Art. 25. — The lodgings of the directress are to comprise two or 
three rooms a feu, a kitchen, water-closet, and cellar. The floor space 
is to be 70 square meters. 

Art. 26. — The lodgings of the assistant are to comprise one room 
a feu and a closet. 

Art. 27. — There is to be no direct communication between the 

school and lodging-s. 

Furniture. 

Art. 28. — The furniture of the exercise halls includes tables 42 
centimeters high for the smaller children and 45 for the larg-er 
children. The oval form is preferable, especially for the little 
ones. Tables are to accommodate eight children, allowing- 45 centi- 
meters to each. Each child is to have a small chair, the seat of 
which is to be 22 centimeters hig-h for the little ones and 25 for the 
other section. 



7G 

Art. 29. — If school desks for two pupils, Uavinji: stationary seats 
with backs, are used, the dimensions for the two sections are to bo 
as follows : 

Heif,'-ht above the floor 42 and 45 centimeters. 

Width 40 centimeters. 

Leng-th 90 centimeters. 

Height of seat 22 and 25 centimeters. 

Distance between seat and desk 5 centimeters. The top of desk 
is to be horizontal unless made to incline, by some simple and 
inexpensive contrivance, for some of the exercises of the larg-er 
children. 

"The back of the seat is formed by a cross-piece 8 centimeters 
wide, the height of which above the seat is to be 18 and 19 
centimeters. 

The seat is to be 20 centimeters wide. 

Art. 30. — The tables or desks are not to interfere with the easy 
execution of the gymnastic exercises. The aisles next the wall are 
to be at least 80 centimeters wide. 

Art. 31. — A table with drawers is to serve as teacher's desk. 

Art. 32. — Blackboards are to be placed along the walls of the hall 
50 centimeters from the floor, and rising 1.20 meters above the 
same. 

Art. 33. — A cupboard is to be provided for teaching supplies. 

Covered court. 

Art. 34. — The furniture of the court includes hooks for clothing 
and open-work shelves, arranged along the walls for the lunch- 
baskets (The height of the shelves and hooks should be such as 
to permit the children to reach tneir things); seats with backs 
arranged in a circle; tables and movable seats for children's 
repasts (The length of the tables is to be at least 60 centimeters) ; 
one bed for each group of ten children of the lower section ; lava- 
tories with towels, placed at one extremity of the court behind an 
open-work screen 1 meter high with entrance and way out. The 
Hoor of this part of the court is to be paved with brick, tile, flag- 
stone or bitumen. There is to be one wash-basin for each group of 
ten children. The height of the same above the floor is not to exceed 
50 centimeters. 

Art. 35. — A cupboard is to be provided for the linen, and is to 
contain extra clothing for the children. 

Art. 30. — Wooden benches with backs are to be placed in a circle 
about tlic playground, which is also to furnish drinking water. 



77 

Supplies. 
Art. 37. — These include ; 

a. Collection of playthings for the covered court (e. g. wooden or 
rubber animals, dolls and dresses, lead or wooden soldiers, building 
blocks, flooring blocks, etc.) and for the playground (e. g. buckets, 
shovels, wheelbarrows, go-carts, jumping ropes, hoops, balls, etc.); 

b. Sand for exercises in geography and construction either in 
court or playground ; 

c. Collection of sticks, staves, slats, cubes, etc. ; 

d. Collection of pictures ; 

e. Apparatus necessary for the manual exercises : 
./. Slates ruled on one side in squares ; 

g. Collection of common objects ; 

h. Movable letters; 

I. Terrestrial globe and wall-map of France ; 

j. Tuning-fork ; 

k. Whistle. 

Observation. 

The ecoles malernelles in Paris are furnished with an abundance of 
apparatus. The municipal government iDublishes a list of teaching 
supplies every year, from which directresses are permitted to select 
up to a fixed amount. 



TWENTIETH CHAPTEE. 
LOWER PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

General and Pedagogic Organization. 

Section 1. — The lower primary schools {ecoles primaires elementaires) 
are for children from 6 to 13 years of age. No pupil can be 
admitted before the age of 6 years if there exist in the community 
at a convenient distance a public ecole maternelle ; before the age of 
7 years, if there exist a j)ublic classe enfantine. Birth certificate 
and medical certificate of vaccination and freedom from contagious 
diseases are required. 

Every commune is obliged to furnish public teachers with suitable 
lodgings and with proper school buildings, school furniture and 
school supplies. 

The ministerial decree regulating the building and furnishing of 
public lower primary schools is given below under a special head 
(page 92). 

In case lodgings are not furnished teachers, an allowance is made 
therefor, the amount of which is determined each year by the prefect 



78 

with the advice of the municipal council and of the SiCSideiiiy inspec- 
tor (pag-e 60). 

Teachers are not under any circumstances to be distracted from 
their professional work during school hours nor are they to occupy 
themselves with matters foreign to their scholastic duties. 

Children are not to be disturbed during" school hours. 

The morning and afternoon sessions are to last three hours each, 
opening at 8 a. m. and 1 r. m., respectively. 

These hours may be changed according to local needs by the 
acadeiny inspector on the demand of the local authorities and with 
the consent of the primary inspector. 

The department council, with the consent of the municipal council 
and on the proposition of the academy inspector, may authorize the 
establishment of half-time schools {ecoles de demi-temps). In this case 
the director is to divide the pupils into two groups. One of these 
groups attends school from 8 to 11 A. m., the other from 1 to 4 r. m. 
Parents may on demand obtain permission to have their children 
attend both sessions. 

In schools with several classes, the exercises of the elementary 
and middle courses are divided by a live-minute recess, occurring 
every hour. In the advanced course, each of the two sessions is 
divided by a fifteen-minute recess. 

Teachers must oversee the pupils during recesses and intermis- 
sions, and all the time they remain on the joremises. 

In each school there is a list, "with prices of all articles with which 
teacher may furnish pupils. This list is signed by the primary 
inspector. 

French is the only language to be used in teaching.* 

Theatrical representations, petitions, subscriptions and lotteries 
are forbidden. 

No book or pamphlet, printed or in manuscript, may be intro- 
duced into the school without the written authorization of the 
academy inspector. 

The class walls are to be Avhitened every year and kept in a con- 
stant state of cleanliness. The class-room is to be swept and 
scrubbed every day. The air is to be changed frequently. Even 
in winter, the windows are to be opened during recesses and 
intermissions. 

Public teachers are not permitted to receive from pupils or 
parents presents of any description. 

* It is interesting to note that since my report of last year, Prussia has found it neces- 
sary to modify the regulation that from April i, 1889, German was to be used exclusively 
in teaching, even in districts with a large foreign population. 




Drawn by a Pupil ..f;. F^uhli., Lower Primary School u, Pun- 



79 

The only punishments of which the teacher may make use are : 
Bad marks ; reprimands ; partial deprivation of recess ; detention 
after class ; temporary suspension, not to exceed three days. Notice 
is to be sent immediately to the parents of the child, the local 
authorities and the primary inspector. Suspension of longer dura- 
tion may be pronounced only by the academy inspector. 

Corporal punishment is prohibited absolutely.* 

Teachers are forbidden to tutoyer (thee and thou) their j)upils. 

The extraordinary holidays are 

A week at Eastertide ; 

New Year day or Monday if this fall on Sunday or Thursday ; 

Monday of Whitsuntide ; 

The morning- after All Saints' day ; 

Days of patronal/etes ; 

The day of the national /efe. 

Date and duration of vacations are fixed each year by the prefect 
in conseil departemental.'\ 

Teachers may not change class days nor absent themselves with- 
out authorization of primary inspector, and without giving notice 
of this authorization to the local authorities. 

If the absence lasts more than three days, the authorization of 
academy inspector is necessary. 

Leave of absence for more than fifteen days may only be granted 
by the prefect. Under serious and unforeseen circumstances, the 
teacher may absent himself without other conditions than notice to 
the local authorities and to the primary inspector. 

Lower primary instruction includes, — 

Morals and civics ; 

Reading and writing ; 

The French language ; 

Arithmetic, including the metric system ; 

History and geography, especially of France ; 

Object lessons and elementary scientific notions ; 

Elements of drawing, singing and manual training ; 

Gymnastic and military exercises. 

* Italy, France and Belgium have abolished corporal punishment. Prussia, however, 
recognizes it as a necessity and carries it to an extent which shocks us. 

Ha the lycees and colleges the summer vacation is from August first to Octoher first. 
In primary normal schools the summer vacation is seven weeks in length. In lower 
primary schools the length of the school year varies slightly in the different depart- 
ments. In tho.se schools which I have visited the school year varies from forty-two 
to forty-five we^jks except in the e'coles maternelles which remain in session about forty- 
eight weeks annually. 



80 

The department council prepares regulations for the public lower 
primary schools of each department after the plan of the ministerial 
regulation decreed in higher council. 

Instruction is given in three divisions, viz., elementary, middle 
and advanced courses. Whatever be the number of classes and 
pupils, these divisions are compulsory. 

The course of study is divided as follows, — 

Infant section. — One or two years according as children enter at 
6 or 5; 

Elementary course. — Two years, from 7 to 9 ; 

Middle course. — Two years, from 9 to 11 ; 

Advanced course. — Two years, from 11 to 13. 

In schools with one teacher and one class, there is to be no divi- 
sion in the middle and advanced courses. There are not to be more 
than two divisions for pupils under 9. 

In schools with two teachers, one has charge of the middle, and 
advanced courses, the other of the elementary course and of the 
infant section if there be one. 

In schools with three teachers, each course forms a distinct class. 

In schools with four classes, the elementary course includes two 
classes and each of the other courses one class. 

In schools with five classes, the elementary course includes two 
classes, the middle course two and the advanced course one class. 

In schools with six classes, each of the three courses forms two 
classes, provided the number of pupils in the advanced course be not 
small enough for combination into a single class. 

In all cases in which the same course comprises two classes, one 
class represents the first year, the other the second year of the 
course. The two classes follow the same course of study, but the 
lessous and exercises are so graduated that in the second year pupils 
review and complete the studies of the first. 

In schools with more than six classes, whatever be the number of 
teachers, no course is to require more than two years. The classes 
above six, not including the infant section, are to be parallel classes. 

At the beginning of each year, the pupils are divided according 
to their attainments into the different classes of the three cours3s 
by the director under the control of the primary inspector. The 
cerl'ificat d'etudes admits to the advanced course. 

Each pupil receives on entering school a special blank-book which 
is to be preserved throughout the school course. The first task of 
each month in each study is entered in this book, in class and with- 
out aid, in such a manner that the progress of the pupil may be 



81 

followed from year to year. There is a special blank-book for each 
of the three courses. Below is given a specimen page of the cahier 
for the elementary course : 

NAME COMMUNAL SCHOOL AT 

OF INSTITUTION.... DATE: 

(day, month, year) 

NAMEOFPUPIL: COUKoE ' 

Date of birth 

(Titleof task) 

Entered school 



ai 



82 

The other cahiers differ only in having- single ruled lines instead 
of the four, and in being somewhat larger (40, 48 and 64 pages). 
These cahiers are carefully preserved at the school until the child 
finish the courses. They are then plainly bound and given to 
him. 

In case children leave one school for another, these cahiers are 
submitted to the teacher and form the basis for classification. Each 
task is to be corrected by the teacher with ink or colored pencil. 
The primary inspector at each inspection is to place his signature 
under the last task written in the cahier. 

The cover of each cahier contains the name and date of birth of 
pupil, with the date of entering and of leaving the school. The 
inside covers offer the following recommendations to the children : 

Child: 

This cahier is given you to be the companion and witness of your studies throughout 
your school life. 

Every month you are to fill a few pages with the tasks which are set for you. You are 
to do this in class without aid either from comrade or master. You are to continue in 
this way throughout your school days, that is to say up to the age of 13 years or until 
you have obtained the cei'tificat d'e'tudes. 

This calde)- will show whether you merit promotion or not. It will give you the pleas- 
ure of seeing the progress you are making. All these tasks when bound together make 
but a very small volume. And yet they are in a measure the re'sumii of all your child- 
hood, the history of your six or seven years of study. You will be glad to have this 
aouvenir of your school when you leave it to return no more. You will preserve care- 
fully these modest tasks which testify to yourself and to all how you have passed your 
childhood. 

Child, do your duty in such a way that you may look at this abstract of your school 
life without having occasion to blush. It is not necessary for this that you be one of 
the first in your class. The advantage of this caJiier lies in the fact that it does not 
compare you with your comrades but with yourself. It is not to show whether you are 
more intelligent, more clever, more learned than other pupils; but whether, month by 
month and year by year, you become more expert and better informed. 

Child, be diligent. This cahie)- is ready to receive the best work you can do, work 
which will be a credit to you and at the same time a source of pleasure to your parents 
and teachers. Be careful with your penmaiiship, your dictation, your tasks in history, 
geography and arithmetic. If the first pages are filled to your satisfaction, you will 
wish to make the following better still. 

Exert yourself to flaake progress. It is the law of school because it is the law of life. 
Men are subject thereto as well as children. The cahier v^iW remind you of this per- 
haps while inviting you to examine yourself more frequently. 

Child, think also of this. One does not work for one's self alone in this world, one 
works also for others. Little children without thinking of it are working also for their 
country. 

Good pupils become good citizens. If you make good use of your childhood, if you 
profit by all the means of instruction which the Republic takes care to offer to all 'her 
children, you will be able one day to give back to your mother country what the is giving 
you to-day. France needs workers and men of property such as you will become, if you 
lay the proper foundation here. Do not lose your time; you have no right to do this. 
Idlers wrong themselves no doubt, but they wrong their country still more. 

Do not permit yourself to be overcome in moments of feebleness and discouragement. 
Take courage aud say under your breath : No. I will not bo useless, ungrateful toward 
my family, ungrateful toward France — I will work, I will do my best, not only because 
it i<* to my interest, but because it is my duty. 



83 

All competitions between public schools, in which at least all 
the pupils of one of the three courses do not participate, are 
forbidden. 

Instruction given in the public primary schools has a three-fold 
character, — physical, moral and intellectual. 

At the opening of each school year, the time-table by day and 
hour is prepared b}'^ the director, and after approval of primary 
inspector, is exposed in the class-rooms. 

The division of exercises must satisfy the following general 
conditions, — 

a. Each session is to be divided into several different exercises, 
separated by the reglementary recreations ; 

h. Exercises demanding the greatest attention, such as arithmetic, 
grammar and composition, should take place in the morning, or in 
half-time schools, at the commencement of the sessions ; 

c. Every lesson and every task is to be accompanied with explana- 
tions and questions ; 

d. Correction of tasks and recitation of lessons are to take place 
during the hours to which these tasks and recitations belong. 
Usually the tasks are corrected on the blackboard at the same time 
the cahiers are inspected. Compositions are corrected by the master 
outside the class. 

e. The thirty hours per week (not including the time pupils may 
study at home or the study hours, in the preparation of tasks and 
lessons) should be divided as follows : 

1. There is to be a daily lesson in morals in each of the first two 
courses in the form of a familiar talk or by means of an appropriate 
selection. In the advanced course, these lessons should develop 
methodically the course of study in morale ; 

2. Instruction in French (reading, selections explained, lessons 
in grammar, exercises in orthography, dictation, analysis, composi- 
tion, recitation, etc.), are to occupy about two hours a day ; 

3. Scientific instruction is to occupy from one hour to one and 
one -half hours daily. Three-quarters of an hour or one hour should 
be devoted to arithmetic and to mathematic exercises. 

The rest of the time should be devoted to object lessons and to 
elementary scientific notions ; 

4. Instruction in history and geography, including civics, 
should occupy about an hour daily ; 



84 

5. The time devoted to penmanship should be at least one 
hour daily in the elementary course, and should g-ive jilace 
gradually in the higher courses to exercises in dictation and 
composition ; 

6. Instruction in drawing begins with very short lessons in the 
elementary course, and occupies two or three periods weekly in 
the other courses ; 

7. Singing lessons occupy from one to two hoiirs per week, inde- 
pendent of the exercises in singing which take place daily on enter- 
ing and lea\dng the classes ; 

8. Gymnastics, in addition to the evolutions and exercises which 
may accompany the movements of the classes, occupy daily, or at 
least every other day, a period in the afternoon. 

In communes where there are school battalions the exercises may 
not take jilace except Thursdays and Sundays. The time to be 
devoted thereto is determined by the militaiy instructor in concert 
with the school inspector. 

9. Finally, for both boys and girls, two or three hours weekly are 
to be devoted to manual training. 

Section 2. — In each department a list is made annually of the 
books which may be used in public primary schools. As in Prussia, 
text-books are not printed by the government.* 

The teachers {iitulaires) of each canton, united in special con- 
ference, make by the fifteenth of July at the latest a list of 
the books which they deem proper for use in public primary 
schools. 

All these lists are sent to the academy inspector. A commission 
sitting at the chief place in the department, and composed of the 
primary inspector, the director and the directress of the normal 
schools and delegated professoi-s and masters of these establish- 
ments, meets under the presidency of the academy inspector, revises 
the cantonal lists, and issues the catalogue for the department which 
is then submitted to the rector for his approval. 



* American text-books are recognized by impartial perBonn as the best in the world, 
both as regards mechanical construction and subject matter. This superiority is 
attributed to the Independence and spontan«ity of the authors. Manuel ValdcSs 
llodriKUoz in his " Problema de la Educacion," publis-hed at Havana in 1891 says: " Bien 
puede decirse que apenas habra en el mundo llbros me.ior con.stituidcs por bus condi- 
ciones. asi Internas, como externas. Comparados eon los franceses les (los libros de 
texto ameri(jiino)Bon muy superioreseu uno y otroconcepto. D(5be8e esta superloridad 
& las condiciones de independencia y espontaneidad do los autores." 



85 

The records which the male and female teachers must keep are, — 

a. Register of matriculation ; 

h. Register of absence and attendance ; 

c. Inventory of school furniture and school supplies ; 

d. Inventory of personal propertj', if there be any ; 

e. Catalogue of the books of the popular library of the public 
school, with record of receipts and disbursements and books drawn. 

The first four of these records must be kept also by the direct- 
resses of the ecoles mater nelles. 

In addition to the records referred to above, there is a very con- 
venient little book, entitled carnet de correspondance, which contains 
a record of absences, tardy marks, deportment, work at school, work 
at home and relative standing of pupils. This book is given to the 
pupil every fortnight on Saturday, and is returned Monday morn- 
ing with the remarks of parents or guardians written over their 
signatures. 

Below is printed a specimen page of this book of record : 

Class. Course. 

SEPTEMBER, 189.. 
Second Fortnig-ht. 

Absence 

Tardiness 

Deportment at school 

School work 

Home tasks 



Relative standing J 



General note for the fortnight. 



REMARKS. 



Teacher. 



Visa of teacher. 



Parents. 



Signature of parents. 



86 

In France great stress is laid on encouraging' the habit of saving 
money. The inside cover of this little carnet de correspondance con- 
tains an account of the savings of the children for the year in the 
following form : 



No. 



URAND SAVINGS BANK, 

No. of Bank-book 



SCHOOL SAVINGS BANK. 



M 

born 

residing at 



18... at 



MONTH 

(School year 189.. -189..). 


Weekly Deposits. 


Total for 
month. 


To grand 

savings 

bank. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


September 

October 






























Novernber 
































January(189 ) 
















Febru ary 
















March 

April 

May 












































June 

July 






























August 
































Totals .. 






Total deposits for year 


1 




Amount transferred 








The child deposits his savings with 
teacher weekly, penny by penny. When 
the amount thus deposited equals a franc 
it is entered by the teacher on the Savings 
Bank-book, which Is exactly like those 
used by adults. 


Balance 











Those who have not given this subject attention would be sur- 
prised to learn the grand total of such savings (page 31). But 
pennies generally contributed make up very large sums. In Eng- 



87 

land, for example, the children's pence have been an important 
source of income. 

The last education report, reviewed July 22, 1891, in the London 
Globe, shows that the children's pence for the year under review 
exceeded £1,900,000. 

This is most remarkable seeing that over a million of chil- 
dren who oug-ht to have attended the English i)ublic elementary 
schools were not found there.* 



DIVISION OF THE COUllSE OF STUDY IN LOWER 

PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

I. 

Physical Education. 

Ohject. — Physical education serves a double purpose: 

It fortifies the body and strengthens the constitution of the child, 
placing him in hygienic conditions most favorable for his general 
])hysical development. 

It gives him early in life that address and agility, that manual 
dexterity of movement especially necessary to the pupils of 
primary schools, most of whom are destined for the trades. 
Without losing its essential character as an educational establish- 
ment, and without transformation into a work-shop, the primary 
school can give and ought to give physical training, which will x^redis- 
pose and prepare in a certain measure the Ijoys for the duties of 
workmen and soldiers, the girls for household duties and the work 
of women. 

Method. — Physical exercises form a diversion from school duties 
and lessons proper. It is an easy matter to conduct them in such a 
way that the pupils will regard them as a veritable recreation. The 
progress of iustruction in gymnastics is regulated in detail by 
manuals published under the auspices of the minister, as well as 
by the directions of special professors and teachers. For the 
manual training of the boys, the exercises are divided into two 
groups. 

One includes those which are destined to make the fingers 
fiexil)le and to promote dexterity, rapidity, and accuracy of move- 

♦ This is merely an illustration. The savinsrs of French children belong to them 
The pence which the English children handed their teachers every Monday morning 
went toward defraying the cost of education. The new bill, which went into effect 
September 1. 1891. makes education free, thus doing away with the children's pence. 



88 

meiit; the other includes graduated exercises in modeling which 
complement the study of drawing-, and particularly of industrial 
drawing. 

The manual training of girls, in addition to needlework and cutting, 
includes certain lessons, counsels and exercises by means of which 
the mistress does not propose to give a complete course in domestic 
economy, but may inspire girls, by a number of practical examples, 
with the love of order, leading them to acquire the serious qualities 
of the housekeeper, and putting them on their guard against frivol- 
ous or dangerous tastes. 

n. 

Intellectual Education. 

Object. — The intellectual education, which the public primary 
schools should give, is easy to characterize. 

The information imparted should be limited, but of such a char- 
acter as to assure for the child the practical knowledge which he will 
need in life. It should act on his faculties, form and cultivate his 
mind and constitute in fact an education. 

The ideal of the primary school is not to teach much, but to teach 
well. 

The child learns little, but knows that little well. The instruc- 
tion which he has received is limited, but not superficial. It is not 
a demi-instruction, and he who receives it will not be a demi-savant. 
That which makes instruction complete or incomplete is not the 
extent of the domain which is cultivated; it is the manner of 
cultivation. 

"The object of primary instruction," wrote Greardin 1875, "is not 
to embrace under the different subjects on which it touches all that 
it is possible to know, but to learn well under each where ignorance 
is inexcusable." 

Method. — The object of primary instruction being thus defined, 
the method to follow suggests itself. It does not consist of a suc- 
cession of mechanic processes or of an apprenticeship only in 
reading, writing and arithmetic, or of a cold series of lessons setting 
forth the different chapters of a course. 

The only proper method in primary instruction is that which 
keeps up a continual interchange of ideas under varied, elastic and 
ingeniously graduated forms. The master begins always with what 
the pupils know, and proceeding from the known to the unknown, 
from the easy to the difficult, conducts them by a chain of oral 



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Language Exertlse l»y French Eleuieiilary Pupil of llie MiiUUe Course. 

Introduced to show that moral iostruetion is often given incidentally in connection 
with other subject;^. The seleetii 'U sets forth the evils of ignorance and cruelty. 



89 

questions or of written tasks to discover the consequences of a 
principle, the applications of a rule, or inversely the principles and 
rules which they have already unconsciously applied. In all 
instruction the master beg-ins with the concrete; then little by little 
pupils are exercised in developing the idea of the abstract, in com- 
paring, in generalizing, in reasoning without the aid of material 
examples. 

Primary instruction is sustained by an incessant appeal to the 
attention, to the judgment, to the intellectual spontaneity of the 
pupil. It is essentially intuitive and practical : Intuitive, that is to 
say it counts before all on good common sense, on the weight of 
evidence, on that innate power of the mind to seize, at first sight 
and without demonstration, not all truths, but the most simple and 
the most fundamental ; practical, that is to say it never forgets that 
primary pupils have no time to lose in idle discussions, in learned 
theories, in scholastic curiosities, and proceeds at once to furnish 
them with the little store of ideas which they will need in life, and 
in such a manner that these ideas are preserved and developed 
when school days are over. 

It is under this double condition that primary instruction under- 
takes the education and the culture of the mind. Nature herself 
directs the course of this instruction. It develops in parallel lines 
the different faculties of the intelligence merely by exercising them 
in a simple, spontaneous and almost instinctive manner. It forms 
the judgment in leading the child to judge ; the habit of observa 
tion in teaching him to observe ; reasoning, in aiding him to reason 
for himself and without the rules of logic. 

This confidence in natural forces, and this absence of all preten- 
tion, suit all rudimentary instruction, but are peculiarly adapted to 
the public primary school, which ought to deal, not with certain 
children ajiart, but with the masses of the child population. 

Instruction is necessarily collective and simultaneous. The 
master is not to devote himself to a few but to all. His work 
ought to be appreciated, not by results obtained with a portion 
of his class but with the class as a whole. Whatever the inequality 
in the intelligence of the pupils, there is a minimum of information 
and of ai>titudo which primary instruction ought to communicate to 
all pupils with very few exceptions. This minimum will be very 
easily reached by some pupils, but if it is not attained by the rest 
of the class, the master has not understood his task or has not 
entirely accomplished it. 
12 



90 



III. 

Moral Education, 

Object and Method.— Moral education differs profouncUy in its 

end and in its essential character from the other two parts of the 

prog-ram. 

End and Essential Character. 

Moral instruction is destined to complete and to bind together, 
to raise and to ennoble all the other instruction of the school. While 
each of the other studies develops a special order of aptitudes and 
gives useful information, this tends to develop the man himself 
within the man, that is to say a heart, an intelligence, a conscience. 

Moral instruction moves in another sphere than physical and 
intellectual. The force of moral training depends much less on the 
precision and on the logical sequence of the truths taught than on 
the intensity of feeling, the vivacity of impressions and the con- 
tagious heat of conviction. This education does not lead to knowl- 
edge {savoir) but to will (voidoir). It moves more than it proves ; 
it comes rather from the heart than from the reason. It does not 
vindortake to analyze all the reasons for the moral act; it seeks 
before all to produce this act, to repeat it, to make it rule life as a 
habit. Especially at the primary school, it is not a science but an 
art, the art of inclining the free-will toward the good. 

Part of the Teacher in this Instruction. 

The teacher is charged with this part of education, in addition to 
the others, as a representative of society. 

A secular and democratic society has in fact the most direct 
interest in the early initiation of all its members by ineffaceable 
lessons into the sentiment of their dignity and into a feeling not less 
profound of their duty and of their personal responsibility. 

To attain this end, the teacher is not to teach in detail theoretic 
and practical morals as if dealing with children devoid of all previous 
notions of good and bad. The great majority enter sc;hool receiving 
or having received a religious instruction which familiarizes them 
with the idea of a God, creator of the universe and father of men. 
with the traditions, beliefs and practices of the Christian or Jewish 
religious. 

By means of one of these religions and under the forms peculiar 
thereto, pupils have already received the fundamental notions of 
universal and eternal morals ; but these notions are new-born and 



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Lianguage Exercise by French Elementary Pupil of tlie Advanced Course. 

Introduced to show that moral instruction is often given incidentally in connection 
with other subjects. The selection teaches the value of modesty, reserve and diligence. 



91 

fragile shoots. They have not penetrated deeply into the soil; 
they are fugitive and confused, committed to memory rather than 
to conscience. They need to be ripened and developed by a 
suitable training, which the public teacher is to give. 

The limits to his mission are, therefore, closely defined. He is to 
strengthen, to root in the souls of his pupils for all their lives, 
maiking them matters of daily practice, those essential notions of 
morality, which are common to all doctrines and necessary to all 
civilized men. He can accomplish this without adherence or 
opposition to any of the religious beliefs of his pupils. He takes 
the childi'en as they come with their ideas and language and family 
beliefs. He has no other task than to teach them to draw therefrom 
what is most precious from a social standpoint, that is the doctrine 
of a high morality. 

Object Proper and Limits of this Instruction. 

Secular moral instruction is distinguished therefore from religious 
instruction without contradicting it. The teacher is not the substi- 
tute for priest or father. He joins his efforts with theirs in making 
of each child an honest man. He ought to dwell on the duties which 
unite men, and not on the dogmas which divide them. Every theo- 
logic and philosophic discussion is forbidden him by the nature of 
his duties, by the age of his pupils, by the confidence of families 
and of the State. His is the practical task of causing all his pupils 
to serve the effective apprenticeship of a moral life. 

Later, when they have become citizens, the pupils may be sepa- 
rated by dogmatic opinions ; but they will be in accord in the prac- 
tice of putting the aim of life as high as possible; in having the 
same horror of everything base and vile, the same admiration for 
that which is noble and generous, the same delicate sense of duty 
in aspiring toward moral perfection, cost what it may ; in feeling 
themselves united in the general religion of the good, the beautiful 
and the true, which is also a form and not the least pure of religious 
fervor. 

The teacher by his character, by his conduct, by his language is 
himself to set the most persuasive of examples. In this kind of 
instruction, that which does not come from the heart does not go to the 
heart. A master who recites precepts, who speaks of duty without 
conviction, without fervor, does worse than waste his time ; he com. 
mits a fault. A course in morals, regular but cold, hackneyed and 
dry, does not teach morals, because it does not inspire love. The 
simplest story in which the child finds a trace of seriousness, a 



92 

single sincero word, is worth luoro than u long succession of 
mechanical lessons. 

On the other liand — and it seems siiarcoly nejcessary to fornndato 
this proscription — ^ the master should shun as a bad action every- 
thing' which, in his lang-uage or in his attitude, mig-ht disturb the 
religious beliefs of the children (ionfidcul to liis care; all that might 
trouble them ; all that might betray on his part a lack of respect or 
reserve. 

His sole obligation — and it is compatible with respect for all 
ci-eeds — is to watch, in a practical and paternal fashion, the moral 
development of his pupils, manifesting- therefor the same degree of 
solicitude with which he follows their intellectual and physical 
d(ivelo[)ment. He ought not to feel that he has i)erformed his 
duty toward any one of his pupils, if he has not done as much for 
the education of the character as for that of the intelligence. Then 
only does the tei^cher merit the title ediuuiior, and primary instruc- 
tion the name liberal education. 

CONSTRUCTION AND FURNITURE OF LOWER PRIMARY 

SCHOOLS. 

The lower primary school comprises : 

1. A cloak r<iom or vf^stibule serving as cloak-room ; 

2. One or more class rooms ; 

3. A covered court ( preau) with g-ymnasium, and often (in schools 
with less than three classes) a little worksliop for manual training"; 

4. A playground and garden, when possible; 

5. Water-closets and urinals ; 

G. Lodgings for teacher, and for assistant teachers ; 

In addition, when necessary, in schools of more than three classes : 

7. Lodgings for the concierge; 

8. Waiting room for parents ; 

9. Study for teacher ; 

10. Parlor for assistant teachers ; 

11. Class-room foi- drawing with a closet for models ; 

12. A workshop for manual training in boys' schools or a room for 
needlework and cutting in girls' schools ; 

13. A gymnasium. 

(tENEKAL OONDITIONS. 

Art. 1. — The site should be central, easy of access, properly 
drained, removed from every unheal thful, noisy or dangerous estab- 
lishment, and at least 100 meters distant from cemeteries. 



\ 




Drawn by a Pupil of a Public Lower 



PriinJiry School in Pans. 



93 

Art. 2. — The size of the site should be sufficient to allow about 10 
meters for each pupil ; it should never be less than 500 meters. The 
school and its annexes are to be inclosed. 

Art. 3. — In placing the buildings, hygienic conditions are to 
meet due consideration. 

Art. 4. — When the mayoralty is in the school building, it should 
be separated therefrom. No foreign service is to be installed in the 
school building. 

Art. 5. — The walls are not to be less than 45 centimeters in thick- 
ness if of stone, or 35 centimeters if of brick. 

Art. 6. — Materials which are too permeable should not be used. , 
Tile and slate should be used for roofing in preference to metal. 

Art. 7. — The ground floor should be 60 centimeters above the soil. 

Art. 8. — If there is no cellar, the flooring should be laid on an 
impermeable bed. 

Art. 9. — In every groupe scolaire the buildings should be inde- 
pendent of each other, provided with separate entrances. The ecole 
maternelle should not be ijlaced between the boys' and girls' school. 

Art. 10. — A. groupe scolaire should not embrace more than 750 
pupils, — 300 boys, 300 girls and 150 infants for the ecole maternelle. 

Lodgings of the Concieege. 

Art. 11. — When the school has a concierge, the lodgings should 
be on the ground floor, and should include : A lodge, a kitchen, one 
or two rooms, water-closet and cellar. The waiting-room for parents 
should be near the janitor's lodge. 

Cloak-rooms.— Halls.— Stairways. 

Art. 12. — Each class should have a cloak-room, but the same 
cloak-room may be used by two or more contiguous classes. The 
cloak-rooms should be provided with pegs for the wraps, and with 
shelves for the lunch-baskets. In rural schools the vestibule may 
serve as cloak-room. 

Art. 13. — Each class should have an independent entrance. 
Doors should not open directly into the street or court. 

Art. 14. — If classes are entered through halls, the same should be 
at least 1.50 meters wide, and should be aired and lighted from without. 

Art. 15. — Classes above the ground floor should be reached by 
straight stairways. Every thirteen or sixteen steps should be sep- 
arated by a landing. The steps should be 1.35 meters wide, from 
28 to 30 centimeters deep, and not more than 16 centimeters high. 
The bars should be 13 centimeters apart, and the hand-rail should 



94 

be provided with knobs not more than 1 meter apart. There should 
be a second hand-rail along- the v/alls. 

Art. 10.— Every school receiving- 300 pupils above the ground 
floor is to bo provided with two stairways. 

Class. 

Art. 17. — The maximum number of places per class is fifty. 

Art. 18. — The class-room should be rectangular, with a floor-space 
of 1.25 meters for each pupil. The ceiling should in no case be less 
than 4 meters high. 

Art. 19. — The openings should be disposed so that each desk 
receive the proper light. The windows should be rectangular or 
slightly arched. The space between the top of the windows and 
the ceiling should be about 20 centimeters. The window-sills should 
be smooth and about 1.20 meters above the floor. Where class- 
rooms are lighted from one side, the light must roach the pupils 
from the left nndor the following conditions : 

a. The height of the class-room should be about two-thirds of its 
width ; 

/>. Ventilators should be iilacod in the opposite walls. 

In all cases the windows should never be less than 8 meters from 
neighboring buildings. 

Art. 20. — AVindows should never be placed opposite the teaciier's 
desk or those of the pupils. Windows in the ceiling are not 
allowed. 

Art. 21. — The French sashes should be divided into two parts 
horizontally for ventilating purposes. 

Art. 22. — The ceilings are to be smooth. A north and south line 
is to bo traced thereon. There is to be no cornice. The angles 
made by the walls are to be rounded (radius 10 centimeters). The 
walls aro to be smooth, permitting fre(|uent cleansing. If not Avain- 
scottod with wood, the walls are to bo cemented to the height of 1.20 
meters. 

Art. 23. — The floors are to bo of hard wood, laid, as far as possible, 
on bitumen. Pine may be used in localities where this wood 
abounds, provided the strips of flooring are narrow and well oiled. 

Art. 24. — Single doors are preferable. They should bo 90 centi- 
meters wide. 

Art. 25. — Class-rooms in mixed schools are not to be divided by 
partitions. Boys and girls are to be grouped separatel3^ 

Art. 26. — A stove should be placed in each class-room with a water 
reservoir with surface for evaporation. Stoves should be provided 



95 

with a double metallic covering- or with one of terra cotta. They 
are to be surrounded with a screen and are not to have ovens. 
Stove-pipes should never pass over the heads of children. Pupils 
are not to be placed within less than 1.25 meters of the stove. Stoves 
a feu direct are not allowed. 
Art. 27 — Class-rooms are to be properly ventilated, 

Salle for Drawing. — Workshop for Manual Training. 

Art. 28. — Schools with four or more classes are to be provided 
with a separate room for drawing. The size of this room should 
allow 1.50 meters for each pupil. There is to be a closet for the models. 

Art. 29. — All boys' schools should be provided with a workshop 
for manual training-. In schools with less than three classes, this 
workshop may be placed in the court {preau).^ 

In all g-irls' schools with more than three classes, a room is to be 
provided for instruction in needlework and cutting-. 

Covered Court (Preau). — Dependencies of the Preau. — 
Gymnasium. 

Art. 30. — Every school is to be provided with a covered court or 
abri, allowing about 1.25 meters for each pupil. The ceiling is to be 
4 meters hig-h. This court is to be furnished with lavatories and tables. 

Art. 31. — There is to be a cooking stove near the court to prepare 
or warm the pupils' food. 

Art. 32. — If there is no special gymnasium, the gymnastic 
apparatus may be placed in the court. 

Playground.— Garden. 

Art. 33. — The area of the playground should be sufficient to allow 
five square meters for each pupil. It should never be less than 200 
square meters. 

Art. 34. — The surface should be sanded. Bitumen, pavement or 
cement may not be used except for walks and passages. Slops 
should not cross the playground in an open channel. 

Art. 35. — There should be a small garden in the playground, 
with trees set out at a suitable distance from the buildings. Benches 
are to be placed about the playgro.und, which is to have also a 
pump or fountain. 

In mixed schools the playground is to be divided by a screen of 
lattice work. 

* About two-thirds of the boys' elementary schools in Paris now have workshops for 
joining, turning, wood-carving and forging. Manual training Is an essential part of 
the course in all lower primary schools. 



96 

Privies an]> ITiunals. — Vaults. 

Jrf. 36. — Boys' schools are to have two and g-irls' schools three 
cabins for ea^^h class. A cabin is to be reserved for teachers. 

Art. 37. — The privies should be so situated that they may be 
easily supervised, and that the prevailing* winds blow not toward 
the buildings or the playground. The cabins are to be about 70 
centimeters wide and 1.10 meters deep. The doors should open 
outwards, and should bo raised 20 centimeters above the floor. 
They should be 1.10 meters high. The stone, cement or metal seat 
should be 20 centimeters high, and should incline toward the orifice. 
The oblong orifice should be 20 centimeters by 14 centimeters, and 
about 10 centimeters from the edge. 

In mixed schools there are to be separate accommodations for the 
sexes. 

Art. 88. — Boys' schools are to have urinals equal in number to the 
privies at least. The dimensions of the cabins are to be about 35 
by 80 by 40 centimeters. Water is to be provided for cleansing. 

Art. 39.— Same as Art. 22, page 75. 

Art. 40. — Same as Art. 23, page 75. 

Lodgings of Teacher. — Lodgings of Assistant Teachers. 

Art. 41. — The lodgings of the teacher include a dining-room, two 
or three living-rooms, a kitchen, water-closet and cellar. The total 
fioor-spaco sliould be from 70 to 00 square meters. The teacher's 
study should bo on the ground fioor, and as near as possible to the 
class-rooms and parlor. 

Art. 42. — There should be no direct communication between the 
class-rooms and the lodgings of the teacher. 

Art. 43. — The lodging of assistant teachers comprise a sleeping 
apartment and study. 

Art. 44. — One stjiirway may servo for several lodgings. 

Art. 45. — In schools, with four or more classes, a room on the 

ground fiour is to serve as cloak-room and refectory for the assistant 

teachers. 

Furniture and Teaching Supplies. 

Art. 46. — Lower primary schools are to be furnished by the com- 
munes with : 

a. For each c/a.s'.s- ; 

Teachers' desk and platform ; desks sufiicient in number for the 
members of the class; black-board, crayon and erasers; reading- 
charts for the elementary division ; a metric chart or compendium ; 



97 

wall-maps — the department, France, Europe, the world or the plani- 
sphere ; a stove or heater, a coal-hod. 

h. Simple tools of the principal trades; necessary materials for 
the instruction in manual training ; guns and racks (for boys' schools) ; 
g-ymnastic apparatus ; poles, rings, ladders, knotted ropes, horizontal 
and parallel bars, dumb-bells, horizontal beam, rods, canes, trapeze. 

c. Objects necessary for use in cleansing the school, brooms, 
buckets, dusters, watering pots, shovels ; 

d. A book-case ; 

e. Pegs for clothing and shelves for lunch-baskets ; 

/. Records such as that of matriculation, the inventory of school 
projierty, the catalogue of the school library, the record of the loans, 
the account of receipts and expenditures. 

Art. 47. — A table with drawers, placed on a platform from 30 to 32 
centimeters high is to serve as teachers' desk. 

Art. 48.— Pupils' desks should be single or double. The former 
are preferable.* 

Four types are prescribed for schools in communes not having an 
ecole maternelle : 

Type I is for children whose height is from 1 meter to 1.10 meters ; 

Type II is for those from 1.11 to 1.20 meters tall ; 

Type III is for children from 1.21 to 1.35 meters in height; 

Type IV is for pupils from 1.36 to 1.50 meters tall. 

Type I is not used in schools which do not receive children under 
six. 

A fifth type may be used for pupils more than 1.50 meters tall. 

The numljer of the type is to be indicated on each desk. Example : 
III, 1'" 21 a 1"' 35. 

Teachers are to measure pupils annually at the opening of the 
term, and assign them to the projoer desks. 

Desks are to be provided with glass or porcelain ink-wells, placed 
at the right of each pupil. They are to have a receptacle for books. 
Bars and supports for the feet are not allowed. 

Art. 49. Blackboards should be of slate. 

Art. 50. This article prescribes the form and arrangement of the 
tables and seats used in drawing. 

* French school furniture Is better than Prussian thousrh Inferior to American. Desks 
or Ave and six pupils are still found In many country schools and In some cltv schools. 

13 



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110 



TIME TABLES IN LOWER PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

I. 

SCHOOLS IN WHICH THE THREE COURSES ARE SEPARATE, OR 
THOSE IN WHICH THE MIDDLE AND ADVANCED COURSES 
ALONE ARE TOGETHER. 

Elementary Course 

Morning. 
8.30 to 9.00... Bloral or civic iustructioa. 
9.00 to 9.30... Reading. 
9.30 to 10.00... Arithmetic orlmetric system. 
10.00 to 10.15... Recess. 
10.15 to 11.00... French. 
11.00 to 11.30... Writing. 

Afternoon. 

1.00 to 1.30... History or geography. 

1.30 to 2.00... Reading. 

2.00 to 2.30... Drawing, manual training, military exercises. 

2.30 to 2.45... Recess. 

2.45 to 3.15... Writing. 

3.15 to 4.00... Object-lessons and singing. 

Middle and Advanced Courses. 

Alorning. 

8.30 to 9.00 .. Moral or civic instruction. 

9.00 to 10.00... Arithmetic, metric system, geometry. 
10.00 to 10.15... Recess. 
10.15 to 11.00... French, 
11.00 to 11.30... Writing (middle course), composition (advanced course). 

Afternoon. 
1.00 to 2.00... History or geography. 

2.00 to 2.30... Reading; memory exercises. 

2.30 to 2.45... Recess. 

2.45 to 3.30... Drawing, singing, manual training or composition. 

3.30 to 4.00. . . Physical and natural sciences ; agriculture and horticulture. 

II. 

Ungraded Schools. 
Elementary course. 

8.30 to 9.00... Moral and civic instruction. 

9.00 to 10.00... Reading, arithmetic or metric system. 
10.00 to 10.15. .. Recess. 

10.15 to 11.00... Various exercises in language and grammar. 
11.00 to 11.30... Writing. 

1.00 to 2.00. . . Reading, talks on history and geography. 

2.00 to 2.30... Writing. 

2.30 to 2.4.5... Recess. 

2.45 to 3.30... Drawing, singing, and manual training. 

3.30 to 4.00... Object-lessons or reading. 



Ill 

lliddle and advanced courses. 



8.30 to 9.00.. 


. Moral and civic instruction. 


9.00 to 10.00.. 


. Arithmetic, metric system, geometry. 


10.00 to 10.15.. 


. Recess. 


10.15 to 11.00.. 


. French. 


11.00 to 11.30.. 


. Writing. 


1.00 to 2.00.. 


. History or geography. 


2.00 to 2.30.. 


. Reading; memory exercises. 


2.30 to 2.45.. 


. Recess. 


2.45 to 3.30.. 


. Drawing, singing, and manual training. 


3.30 to 4.00.. 


. Physical and natural sciences ; agriculture and horticulture. 



TWENTY-FIEST CHAPTEK. 
UPPER PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND COURS COMPLEMENTAIRES. 

Establishments for upper primary instruction take the name cours 
comjilementaires if annexed to primary schools and under the same 
direction. They are called upper primary schools if in a sei^arate 
building- and under other direction. 

The duration of the course in the cours comjjlementaires is not to 
exceed two years. There are two divisions of the pupils, which may 
be united under one teacher. 

The course in upper primary schools is at least two years in 
length. These schools are full course {de plein exercice) if the course 
is three years or more in length. 

No pupil may be received either in an upper primary school or in 
a complementary course who does not hold the certificate of jjrimary 
studies (page 54). 

The complementary courses should have separate class-rooms. 
The upper primary school should have as many class-rooms as there 
are years in the course of study. It should have a room for instruc- 
tion in drawing, a gymnasium and a department for manual training. 

The course of study in cours complementaires and upper primary 
schools is given below (page 113). 

During the first three years of upper j)rimary instruction, there 
should be six hours of class-work daily (Sundays and Thursdays 
excepted). The weekly division of time should be about as follows : 
Nine hours for literary instruction (morals, civics, the French 
language, history and geography) ; nine hours for scientific instruc- 
tion (mathematics, physical and natural science) ; four hours for the 
modern languages; three hours for drawing; four hours for manual 
training; one hour for music. 

Gymnastic and military exercises should be held outside these 
hours of class-work. 



112 

In the fourth year of upper primary instruction and later, the 
time devoted to manual training- and to technical instruction may 
be increased, but at least ten hours weekly should be reserved for 
the other subjects. 

Instruction in (h'awing-, music, modern lang-ua^es, gymnastics and 
manual training should be confided, as far as possible, to teachers 
attached to the school. 

Pupils seeking admission to upper primary schools must take the 
entrance examination as the basis of classification. 

The regulations for holidays, vacations, discipline, the construc- 
tion and furnishing of school buildings, etc., correspond very closely 
with those enforced in lower primary schools. 

Pupils more than 18 years of age are not permitted to frequent 
the upper primary schools. 

JScoles maternelles, lower and upper primary schools and normal 
schools are gratuitous. 

Scholarships are awarded annually to the best pupils in the upper 
primary schools. They are good for three school years and the 
time may bo extended to four j^oars. These scholarships pay the 
whole or a portion of the living expenses of the holders in Frf.nce, or 
permit them to study in a foreign country. 

The upper primary schools referred to in this chapter do not 
include the technical or manual training schools, but only those 
which are under the sole charge of the minister of public 
instruction. 

The statistics for 1887 show that 56 per cent of the graduates of 
these schools devoted themselves to agriculture, commerce or indus- 
try, and 17 per cent entered higher schools. 

In 1884, including the 320 complementary courses, there were 559 
of these establishments, of which 419 were for boys, and 140 for 
girls ; 539 were public schools. 

In 1887, including the 431 complementary courses, there were 733 
of these establishments, of which 510 were for boys, and 223 for 
girls; G8G were public schools. Two hundred and five boys and 7G 
girls' complementary courses were for one year; the rest for two 
years. Eighty-three schools for boys and 30 for girls had a two 
years' course ; 101 schools for boys and 41 for girls had a three years' 
course. 

In 1887, 10,052 pupils attended the complementary courses, which 
were all public ; 20,073 attended the public and 7,716 the private 
schools. 



113 



OFFICIAL PROGKAMS OF INSTRUCTION IN UPPER PRIMARY 
SCHOOLS AND COURS COMPLEMENT AIRES. 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND PREPARATION FOR PROFESSIONAL 
APPRENTICESHIP. 

1. Gymnastics. 

Comphnaentarv f!0?trses.— Continuation of the exercises of the advanced course In 
lower primary schools. Follow the special manuals for each sex, published by the 
ministry. 

Upper primary s(7too?.s.— Movements In a body. Exercises with apparatus. 

2. Military Exercises for the Boys. 

Complementaru courses.— Continuation of the exercises of the advanced course In 
lower primary schools. 

Uppen- primari/ .sc/tooZs.— Military drill: Review without arms. Formation In open 
order. Military and topographic marches. Exercises preparatory to target-practice. 
Practical study of the mechanism of the gun. Conform with the special manual rub- 
llshed by the ministries of public Instruction and of war. 

3. Manual Training for the Boys. 

Goviplementary courses.— Same as in the upper primary schools. 

?/pper- prmiar// sc7/,ooZs.— Wood-working. Principal woods used in structures or In 
machines. Their auallties and uses. Principal tools employed In working wood. 
Sawing, boring, planing, turning, joining, iron-working. Properties, varieties, quali- 
ties and uses of iron. Principal tools used usually In working iron. Filing, hammering, 
forging, soldering, engraving, drilling, turning, joining, adjusting. Working drawings 
of simple objects, and construction of the objects from the drawings. 

4. Manual Training for the Girls. 

Complemenlarii courses.— Same as in the upper primary schools with less development. 
Upper primary schools.— In the following divisions: 



a. Housekeeping. 



Organization and maintenance of the household. 
Heating. Lighting. 
Maintenance of the furniture. 
Care of clothing and linen. 
Washing. Wash-house. Ironing. 

Flour. Baking. Furnace. Bread-baking. Pastry-work. 
Household provisions. Wood. Coal. Drinking-water. 
Wine and Its care. Vinegar. 
Cider. Beer, Coffee. Oil. Grease. Sugar. 
Preservation and cooking of meat. 
Qaalities and choice of meats. 
Elementary principles of the cuisine. 
Kettle. Broth. Frying. Roasting. 
Game. Fish. 

Preservation and cooking of vegetables. 

Preservation of fruits. Fruit-garden. Packing and transportation of fruits. 
Manufacture of preserves, braudied fruits, syrups, liqueurs. 
Household accounts. 

N. B.— The pupils should have as much practical household work as possible at home. 
15 



114 

b. Gardening. 

Summary notions of agrindture.— Soil, manures and improvements. Different kinds of 
husbandry. 

Garden.— General arrangement; paths, borders, walls, gai'den works and tools. 

Fruit-garden.— GenevaA principles of the culture of fruit trees, with application to the 
varieties best suited to the district. Diseases among fruit-trees. Destruction of harm- 
ful insects. 

Kitchen-garden.— N&vietieB, culture and harvesting of vegetables. Harvesting and 
preservation of grains. Forced cultivation: hotbeds, cold-frames, plant-protectors. 

Notions o/^oncuttitre.— Flowers cultivated for ornament and for the manufacture of 
perfumery. 

c. Farming. 

i^Vinn.— Cow-house and dairy. General notions of the manufacture of butter and 
cheese. 

Summary notions of the sheep-fold and of the keeping of hogs. Poultry-yard. Hear- 
ing and fattening of poultry. Pigeons. Rabbits. Bees and silk-worms. 

d. Sewing. 

Different stitches. Darning. Knitting. Patching. 

Joining and setting together. Linen. Chemises and shirts for men and boys. 

Pantaloons, waistcoats, bonnets, etc. 

Cutting and making articles of clothing. Study of patterns. Princess robe. Basque. 
Clothing for children. 

N. B.— The various parts of this program should be developed according to the needs 
of the locality. 

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 

1. Reading. 

Complementari/ courses.— Exercises in reading aloud, with explanation ; exercises in 
elocution and in pronunciation. Reading aloud by teacher and pupils, with explana- 
tion and analysis ; recitation ; exercises in diction in connection with classic texts. 

2. Writing. 

Gomplementarij courses.— Running hand, round hand, hdtarde, commercial hand. 
Uppe)' primary sc/ioo?s.— Running hand, round hand, bdtarde, commercial hand, 
caligraphy. 

3. French Language and Elements of Literature. 

Complementary courses. —Review of the advanced course in lower primary schools. 

Continuation of the same exercises with a little more development. 

Oral exercises, accounts stated and explained aloud, dictations and grammatic exer- 
cises on the essential rules of syntax, and especially reading aloud by teacher and 
pupils, with explanations. 

Upper primary sc/tooZs.— Review and development of the advanced course in lower 
primary schools. Methodic review of syntax ; formation of words, families of words. 
Exercises in distinguishing synonyms. Exercises on the proposition. Coordination 
and subordination of the members of sentences. 

Elementary principles of composition ; application of these principles to narrations 
letters, reports, etc. 

Elementary notions of the history of French literature. Pupils are to be exercised, 
in writing business letters and compositions graduated in point of difficulty, in describ- 
ing objects previously examined under the direction of the teacher, in summing up a 
selection in reading or a lesson in discussing an historic judgment or a moral thought, 
etc. Pupils are to have practical oral exercises similar to those in writing referred to 
above. 



115 

4. History. 

Complementary courses.— Methodic review of the history of Frauce ; formation of the 
preciact of jurisdiction; progress of national institutions; great events of modern 
times. 

Upper primary schools.— Uiva.lry between France and England; hundred years' war. 
The Turks in Europe; fall of Constantinople. 

Great inventions ; mariner's compass, powder, paper, printing. Discovery of the new 
world. 

Charles VII and Louis XI. The wars in Italy. 

Francis L— Struggle between Frauce and Austria. The Benaissance. 

The Reformation and religious wars. 

Henry IV.— The edict of Nantes; Sully. 

Richelieu and Mazarin.— Treaties of Westphalia and of the Pyrenees. 

Louis XIV.— Wars and conquests. Revocation of the edict of Nantes. Colbert, 
Louvois. Vauban. Arts and letters in the seventeenth century. 

Louis XV.— The Regency ; the system of law. Decline of the French power; rise of 
Prussia and of Russia; maritime struggle between France and England; the Indies 
and Canada. Philosophers and economists. 

Louis XVI.— Turgot, Neeker. American war. Convocation of the Etats g^n&aux. 

Formation of French territory under the ancient monarchy. Institutions before 1789. 
State of France in 1789 (the royal power and the Etais ga'neraux, the Trois ordres, corpora- 
tions, privileges, justice, the army, taxes, agriculture, the colonies, etc.). 

The Constituent Assembly, its reforms. The principles of 1789. Constitution of 
1791. 

The Legislative Assembly. 

The Convention. Establishment of the Republic. The factions. Trial and death of 
Louis XVI. Wars. Treaty of Bale. Institutions and creations of the Convention. 
Constitution of the year III. 

The Directory. Bonaparte. The 18 Brumaire. 

Constitution of the year VIII. The institutions of the Consulate. The civil code. 
The peace of Amiens, 

The Empire. The continental blockade. The treaties of 1815. 

The Restauration. The charter, the parliamentary regiine. Capture of Algiers. The 
monarchy of July. The Republic of 1818. The Second Empire. The events of 1870; the 
treaty of Frankfurt. Constitutional laws. 

5. Geography. 

CompZementory cottrses.— Physical and political geography of Europe; general study 
of the geography of other parts of the world ; special study of the geography of France, 
of Algeria and of the French colonies; map-drawing from memory. 

Upper prbnaru scImoIs.— The continents. Principal reliefs of the soil. 

Oceans and their currents. Great river basins. 

Asia, Africa, America, Oceanica. Principal countries. 

European colonies. Staple productions. 

Commercial relations of the five parts of the world with each other and especially 
with France. 

Europe. General configuration. Mountain systems. 

Distribution of water. Different climates. 

European countries; languages, religions, governments. 

Principal industrial and commercial centers. Ways of communication. 

R'>laMons of France with the different countries of Europe. 

France. Conflgurntion ;ind extent. Boundaries. 

Reliefs of the soil; mountains, plateaus and plains. 

Water systems; declivities and basins; rivers and tributaries; lakes, ponds, swamps 
etc. 

Political geography. Ancient proyinces and departments. 

Administrative divisions. 



116 

Economic geography. Zones of culture. Coal-flelds. 

Principal agricultural and industrial productions. Ways of communication; canals, 
highways, railways. 
Algeria and the colonies. 

6. Civics, Common Law and Notions of Political Economy. 

Gomplementaru courses.— Review of the advanced course in lower primary schools. 

Upper primary sc/tooZs.— Development of the program of the advanced course in lower 
primary schools. 

More particular notions of the political, financial, administrative and judicial 
organization of France. 

Elementary notions of civil law (the family and the civil state, the laws of property, 
Inheritances, contracts) and of commercial law (merchants, commercial societies, bills 
of exchange, orders, checks). 

General notions of political economy. 

Production of wealth. Factors in production; material, work, economy, capital, 
property. 

Circulation and distribution of wealth . Exchange, money, credit, wages and interest. 

Consumption of wealth. Productive and unproductive consumption; the question of 
luxury ; expenses of the State ; taxes, the budget. 

7. Arithmetic, Geometry, Surveying and Accounting. 

Complementary courses.— Review and development of the course in lower primary 
schools. 
Upper primary sc/tooZs,— Under the following heads: 

a. Arithmetic. 

Operations with whole numbers. Short methods in oral and written work. Simple 
characters of divisibility. Proof by 9 of the multiplication and division. Greatest com- 
mon divisor of two numbers. Decomposition of numbers into prime factors. Composi- 
tion of the greatest common divisor and of the least common multiple of several num- 
bers. Common fractions. Simplification of fractions. Reduction of fractions to a 
common denominator. Operations with fractions. Decimal fractions. Operations 
with decimal fractions. Reduction of common to decimal fractions. Square root. 
Practice in extracting the square root of numbers. 

Simple notions of ratios and proportions. Proportional magnitudes. 

Varied problems: Simple interest. Discount. Exchange. Public funds. Stocks. 
Obligations. Insurance. Banking. Partnership. Taxes. Alligation. 

h. Metric system. 
Numerous applications, principally to the measure of surfaces and of simple volumes. 

c. Algebra. 

Elements of algebraic calculation. 

Solution of numeric equations of the first degree with one and several unknown 
quantities. 

Application to problems in arithmetic. 

Solution of equations of the first degree. Problems and numeric exercises. 

Solution of equations of the second degree with one unknown quantity; application 
to problems in arithmetic and geometry. 

Principal properties of arithmetic and geometric progressions. 

General ideas of logarithms. Use of l<^garithmic tables with four or five decimals. 

Applications to compound interest and to annuities. 

d. Geometry. 

Plane geometry and its applications. General method employed in making a geo- 
metric plan. Use of instruments. Construction of plans. The scale. Simple topo- 
graphic problems. 

Elementary notions of solid geometry, with applications. Elements of trigonometry, 
with the most common applications. 



117 

e. Surveying. 

Practical exercises in surveying. Computations from maps. Problems in surveying. 
Land registration. Leveling. Use of the water level. Sighting. Reading of topo- 
graphic charts. 

/. First notions of business and of accounting. 

Merchants. Business transactions. Purchases and sales. Memoranda. Invoices. 
Receipts. Simple bills. Bills payable to order. Bills of exchange. Indorsement. 
Acceptance. Protest. Drafts. Checks. Negotiation of commercial paper. Discount 
Commission. Bookkeeping. Notions of single-entry bookkeeping. Insuflaciency of 
the method of single entry. Double-entry bookkeeping. Failure. Arrangement with 
creditors. Rehabilitation. Bankruptcy. ' 

8. Elements of the Physical Sciences. 

Complmnentary coio-ses.— First notions of physics and of chemistry, taught essentially 
by means of simple experiments and elementary explanations. 

Weight ; its effects ; lever ; scales. 

Pressure exerted by liquids. 

Atmospheric pressure, barometer. 

Simple experiments in heat, light, electricity, magnetism (thermometer, steam englDe. 
lightning-rod, telegraph, mariner's compass). 

Ideas of simple bodies, of composite bodies. Metals and common salts. 

Uppe)' primary schools.— Under the heads: 

a. Physics. 

Usual notions on the three states of bodies, the properties of liauids and gases, atmos- 
pheric pressure, the barometer. 

Experimental notions on the effects of heat, the thermometer, wind, rain, snow; on 
the principal electric phenomena, the lightning-rod. 

Eauilibrium of liquids, communicating vessels. 

Hydraulic press, floating bodies, use of areometers. 

Mariotte's law. Manometers. Pumps. Siphon. 

Expansion of bodies by heat. Applications. Conductivity and applications. 

Sources of heat. Heating of solids or liquids and of the air of dwellings and shops. 

Changes of state: Fusion, evaporation, boiling, distillation. Use of steam as a motive 
force. Electric phenomena. Batteries, applications of electricity, electric light, 
telegraphy. 

Magnets, use of the mariner's compass. Electro-magnets. 

Production of sound. Echo. 

Reflection of light, plane mirror, concave mirror. 

Lenses ; uses of the magnifying glass, of the microscope, of spectacles. 

Notions of physical mechanics. Motions. Forces. Idea of the working of forces. 

Steam motors. 

Industrial applications suited to the locality. 

b. Chemistry. 

Exercises in observation and examination of familiar facts introductory to the study 
of chemistry. 

Water, air, their importance in geology and in animal and vegetable life. Simple 
experiments on the properties of water and of air. Analysis and synthesis of water. 

Metalloids and the most useful metals. 

Oxygen. Hydrogen. Nitrogen. Sulphur. Chlorine. Phosphorus. Carbon. Iron 
Zinc. Tin. Lead. Copper. Mercury. Silver. Gold. Platinum. 

Notions of acids, oxides and salts. 

Notions of organic chemistry: From an industrial standpoint: Illuminating gas. 
Benzine. Turpentine. Petroleum. Soap. The candle. Starch. Sugar. Manufacture 
of alcohols. Paper. Natural and artiflcial coloring matter. Dyeing. Preservation of 
wood. TaDUJDg. 



118 

From an agricultural standpoint: Manufacture of bread. Fermented liqueurs (wine, 
beer, cider). Cheeses. Composition of foods. Eggs. Milk. Blood. Flesh. Pre- 
servation of alimentary articles. 

Chemical laws. Notions of equivalents, of the composition of bodies in weight and 
volume. 

Principal industrial applications. 

9. Elements of the Natueal Sciences. 

Complementary courses. Review with .extension of the advanced course In lower 
primary schools. 

Upper primary schools. Elementary notions of the human organization. 

Enumeration of the principal organs and their functions. 

Functions of nutrition. Functions of relation. Notions of domestic animals and 
cutlvated plants of the locality. 

Useful and harmful animals and plants, especially those found in France and in the 
locality. 

The most common and useful minerals of the country. 

Classification of animals. Elementary study of vertebrates, dwelling particularly on 
domestic animals. Mammals and their principal orders. Birds, nesting and migra- 
tions; insectivorous species. Scaly reptiles. Batraclans and their metamorphoses. 
Fish, common alimentary species of salt and fresh water. 

Invertebrates. Summary study of insects and their metamorphoses. Indication of 
the principal, useful and harmful species of the neighborhood. Summary notions of 
the mollusca, principally those which serve for food and Industry. 

Notions of the functions of vegetables and of their classification. Indication of the 
most important vegetables. 

Notions of geology. Study chiefly the geology of the locality. Common phenomena. 
Brief notice of the composition and structure of rocks; of geologic forces; of historic 
geology. 

Hygiene. Advice relative to the care of the body; nourishment, clothing, heating, 
lighting. 

Advice touching the best sanitary conditions of the home; quarters of domestic 
animals. 

Public hygiene: Rural sanitary conditions. Irrigation, drainage, draining of swamps. 
Salubrity of cities, sewers and water-closets ; work-shops, factories, wood-yards. First 
steps to take in cases of accident while awaiting the arrival of a physician. Precautions 
to take In case of epidemics. 

10. Agriculture and Horticulture. 

Complementary courses.— Same program as in upper primary schools, but with less 
development. 

Upper primaru schools.— VracticaX notions of vegetation, of the growth of vegetables 
of their different modes of reproduction (grains, slips, grafting), of the nature of differ- 
ent soils, of manures and their proper use, of fallowing. 

Knowledge and use of agricultural implements. Principal agricultural machines. 

Principal operations of agriculture: Clearing, planting, transplanting, drainage, 
irrigation. 

Principal agricultural products of France and particularly of the locality (cereals, 
alimentary roots and tubers, fodder, oleaginous and textile plants, grape-culture). 

Diseases of plants and remedies ; parasitic vegetables. 

Vegetables, fruits and flowers. Use of green-houses. 

Care of fruit tiees. 

Care of domestic animals. Culture of bees. 

11. Drawing. 

C'o?Hpto/ieri<aryooi/rse.s.— Continuation of primary instruction, with application of the 
following program : 

Free-hand drawing. Drawing, from copy and model, of purely geometric ornaments: 
Moldings, ovolo , rats de coeur, perles, fretwork, etc. 



119 

Drawing, from copy and model, of ornaments whose elements are taken from the 
vegetable kingdom; leaves, flowers and fruits, palms, foliage. 

Exercises in drawing from memory. 

Elementary ideas of the styles of architecture given on the blackboard by the teacher 
( three lessons). 

Drawing of the human head ; its parts, its proportions. 

Geometric drawing. Execution on paper, with the aid of instruments, of geometric 
figures which have been drawn on the blackboard in the middle course. 

Use of colors. 

Drawings reproducing decorative motives for plane surfaces or those in feeble relief: 
Pavements, floorings, glazings, panels, ceilings. 

Drawings in India ink and in color of some of these designs. 

Representation of geometric solids and of simple objects, such as ordinary pieces of 
furniture, etc. Use of colors to express the nature of materials. Coloring of plans and 
charts. 

Upper primary schools.— Same program as for the complementary courses. 

Directions furnished by the Administration des Beaux-arts to fix the mean of this 
course, and, consequently, that of the examinations. 

Geometric Drawing. 
a. Figures in plane geometry. 

To execute at a flxed scale, after a given design, a decorative motive for a plane sur- 
face (pavements, flooring, glazing.) 

To color the different parts either according to the directions given in the design or in 
some other manner, producing a pleasing effect. 

b. Projection. 

To execute at a flxed scale, after a given design, the drawing by horizDutal projection 
(plan) and by vertical projection (elevation) of a geometric solid. 
To shift this solid as directed and to give the new projections. 

c. Penetration. 

To execute at a flxed scale, after a given design, the drawing by projection (plan, 
elevation) of two solids which penetrate. 

The development of the surfaces of the solids is to be given if they are susceptible of 
development. 

Note.— These eases of penetration are to be very simple. The number is to be limited 
and the application is to be pointed out at once. Examples: sphere and regular prism 
(square or hexagonal) whose axis passes through the center of the sphere. (Application 
to the drawing of nuts and screws). Cylinders of the same diameter (application to an 
elbowed pipe), etc. 

d. Perspective. 

To represent, by linear perspective, simple solids (cube, prism, cylinder), isolated, 
juxtaposited or superposited but not penetrating. 

The pupils are to receive a design on which the dimensions of the solids are glven» 
their respective positions, and the point of view, as well as the dimensions of the per- 
spective drawing. 

e. Designs. 

Parts of machines and plans of buildings: 

To execute at a flxed scale, after a design, the drawing of a part of a machine or of a 
plan of a building. 

Ornamental drawing. 

a. These drawings are always from models. 

b. The conditions and the rules for the correction of the drawings are determined in 
the decree of May 1, 1883. 



120 
12. Singing. 

(lomplmnentaru rjojw.sfi.s.— Continuation of the oxerclHOH of tlio lowor primary fichool. 
Ifppir pr'muiry .sc/iooZ.s.— Exorc-iHOH of diction, of Intonation and of time. 
KinKliiK of a melody with wohIh. 
Ex(H!iitlon of cboriiHeH in Hevoral partH. 

Study of Holfciic: KnowledKo of the hIkuh, of the IntervalH, of tlietonoH, of tiie clianKOS, 
of the meaHuroH, of the rhytlimH and of the keyn. 
IteadliiK at nlKht of a loHHon of anlfroc. In keyB of sol, fa and nt. 
MuHl(!al dictation wltii trauHpoHltlon of keyb. 
General j)rlucipleH of niuHic. 

13. MoDEiiN Languages. 

Complcm.m.lari/ rouraes.—AB In the upper primary Bchools. 

(fpp(T prbnary .sr/(Oo/.><.— Koa<lliiK and writing. TrauKlatlonH and explanations. 
Practical notionH of Kramniar. ConvecHation on a Huhjftct taken from every-day life 
from manual trainiiit;, fi'om iunii))er, from the life of plantn and anlmalB, from voyaKCH, 
etc,. Written translation at BJKfit of Him|;lo sentoncoH choBen In the same way. Ques- 
tlouB on wordB or constructions used In the exercises. Oral and written exercises. 
Birapio compositions, business letters, etc. 

MORAL EDUCATION. 

Cornplnnerdari/ cww.sft.s.— Instru(!tion is of the same character as In the lower primary 
schools. It is esHontially practical and experimental. Its object Is to form and exercise 
the moral sense of the purdl. 

The methods of instruction are convorflatlons, and practical exercises tendlntr to i)ut 
Into action what has been learned. In addition tliereto the course comprises a regular 
series of lesBons formluK the methodic review of tlie studies of the middle and advanced 
classes In the lower r>rimary school. These lessous follow the program given below: 

a. Tlir fain ill/.— J)\\tliiH of parents and children; reciprocal duties of masters and 
servants; family spirit; 

h. /S'oru^///.— Necessity and benollts of society, justice, solidarity, fraternity. 

Applications and developments of the ideas of justice: Iio8r)ect for human life and 
liberty, respect for proiierty, reB|)ect for promises, rosr)ect for the honor and reputation 
of others. I'robity, e<iulty, loyalty, delicacy. Respect for opinions and beliefs. 

Applications and developments of the idea of charity or of fraternity. Its different 
degrees; (liitles of bimevoienco, tolerance, clemency, etc. Devotion, the supreme form 
of cliarlty ; show that It has a place in every-day life. 

c. 77/Y' coM/i/r//.— What man owes his country (obedience to the laws, military service, 
dlH(!lpllne, devotion, fidelity to the (lag, etc.). Taxation (condemnation of all fraud 
toward the Htat<(). The vot(» (It Is morally obligatory; It ought to be free, conscientious, 
disinterested. Intelligent). Illghts wlilcli correspond to these duties: Personal liberty, 
liberty of conscience, liberty of work, liberty of association. Guaranty of the security 
of the life and of tlie property of all. The national sovereignty. Explanation of the 
republican devise.: "Liberty, efjuality, fraternity." In each chapter of this course in 
social morals, without entering Into metaiihyslcal discussions, the attention of the 
pujdl Is 1;o be called to: 

1. The difference between duty and interest even when they seem to be the same, 
i. «., the Imperative and disinterested character of duty; 

2. The distinction lietween the written and the moral law: The one fixes a minimum 
of prescriptions which society lmr)OBes on all lier members under fixed penalties; the 
other Imposes on each one In the secret of his conscience a duty wliicli no one compels 
him to fulfil, but whhdi he can not n(»glect without feeling guilty toward himself, 
toward so(!lety and toward God. 

/''y;y;rTjjrH/i(i/'(/.s(7/ooLs.— Under the following divisions: Preliminary notions. Moral 
reBponsibility. Liberty. Duty. lUgbt. Virtue. 



121 

Domestic duties.— T>ntl68 ot children towurd parents, of brothers and sisters toward 
each other, mutual duties of husbands and wives, of masters and servants, duties of 
paronts toward children. Family spirit. 

(Jivir:di(Uen.— The country, tho State and the citizen. 

Public authority, the constitution and the laws. 

Duties of citizens: Obedience to the laws, military service, taxation, voting. 

Duties of the Kovernlng: The great public powers. 

Patriotism. 

Jjuties of nations toward each other.— 'Notlonn of International rights. 

General duties of social Z//e. — Respect for person, life, liberty, honor, reputation, 
opinions and beliefs, property, etc. ; respect for contracts and promises; distributive 
and remunerative justice; equity. 

Charity, benevolence, alms-giving, goodness, solidarity, politeness. 

Duties toward animals. 

yvrsonaZ rM(>.s.— Self-respect, veracity, modesty, foresight, courage, self-control. 

])evelopment of all our faculties ; work. 

lielioious duties and corresponding privdeges,— Place of religious sontiincnt In 
morale. 

Liberty of worship. 

Sanctions of morale, virtue making happy. God and the future life. 



TWENTY SECOND CHAPTER. 
SCHOOLS FOR INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING. 

These schools are classed with the public primary schools, and 
are reg-ulated by the law of December 11, 1880, and by the decree of 
March 17, 1888. The course of study covers at least three years. 

Schools for industrial and commercial training- (e:coles manuellen 
d'apprentissage, and ecolen jjrimairen fiuperieures prf.jjaruloires au com- 
merce ou a I'industrie) assure pupils : 

1. A complement of primary instruction. 

2. Industrial or commercial instruction, or both. 

The time-tables in these schools are divided as follows : 

Industrial Schools and Classes. 



GENERAL PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 



Primary Instruction 

Manual training 

Drawing 

Scientific and technical Instruction with 
industrial applications 

Total hours of work 

— 



First Ybab. 



Hours dally. 



2 hours 

3 hourp 

1 hour 

1 hour 

7 hours 



Second Yeab. 



Hours daily. 



2 hours 
4 hours 
1 hour.. 



Thibd Yeab, 



Hours dally. 



'2 hours. 
5 hours. 
1 hour. 



1 hour 1 hour. 



8 hours 9 hours, 



122 



CoMMEiiciAL Schools and Classes. 






First yeab. 


Second YEAE. 


Third tear. 


GENERAL TLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 


Hours daily. 


Hours daily. 


Hours dally. 


Primary instruction 


1 hour 

2 hours 

1 hour 

2 hours 

1 hour 


1 hour 

a hours 

1 hour 

1 hour 

1 hour 


1 hour. 


Commercial bureau 


3 hours. 




1 hour. 




2 hours. 


DrawiuK 


1 hour. 


Total hours of work 


7 hours 


7 hours 


8 hours. 







Pupils under 12 are not admitted to these schools. They must 
hold the certificate of primary studios or its ocjuivalent. 

In schools for g-irls the working? hours are reduced to six, for the 
first year; seven, for the second year; eipfht, for the third year. 

In case a fourth year is added to the course, the time-table is 
determined by a special program. 

Observation, 

A commission appointed to make in(iuiry and report to the Le^^is- 
laturo of Pennsylvania respecting: industrial education made (juite 
an elaborate report in 1889 on the condition of industrial education 
in Prance and in other countries. It was my g-ood fortune to meet 
in Paris George W. Atherton, chairman of this commission, and to 
visit with him some of the leading French industrial schools. The 
report of the commission covers 592 pages and is very valuable to 
persons interested in this subject. 

( )ne of (jur most profitable visits was at the J'^aole Diderot in Paris 
which had at that time about 300 pupils. 

The object of this school is to prepare workmen for eight of the 
princii)al trades. The apprenticeship lasts three years. During 
the first year pupils pass from one workshop to another in order to 
t<!st their aptitude. At the close of this year they choose a trade 
with the concurrence of their parents, and devote the second and 
third years to this special apprenticeship. Pupils are paid for sat- 
isfactory work at a fixed scale. Two-thirds of their wages are allowed 
tlui i)npils monthly, and one third is kei)t by the director until their 
graduation. 

I*'r(!nch schools in cities and centers of population are abundantly 
sui)[)li(Hl with apparatus, and the teachers are remarkably ingenious 
in its use. The noticeable feature of the apparatus used in indus- 



123 

trial schools is that much of it is made by the pupils. At the JiJcole 
Diderot, for example, the pupils lunch at the school, and the ques. 
tion of preparing and cooking- potatoes has received attention. 
The director, who is remarkably ingenious, has invented two larg-e 
machines, one for peeling- and one for cooking potatoes. Both were 
made by the pupils, and both work to a charm. 



TWENTY THIRD CHAPTER. 

PEIMARY NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

Primary normal schools are establishments for training- teachers 
for the public ecoles maternelles, the lower and upper primary schools.* 
Normal schools are under the rector subject to the authority of the 
minister. They are boarding schools. Board and lodgings are free. 
Day students may bo admitted on the recommendation of the rector 
and with the approval of the minister. The course of study is three 
years in length. A primary practice-school is annexed to each 
normal school. In addition, an ecole malernelle is attached to each 
normal school for females. 

Normal school directors are appointed by the minister. They 
should be 30 years of ag-e and should hold the certificate of capacity 
for the inspection of primary schools and for the direction of normal 
schools. 

A steward with the title econome is attached to each normal school. 
In normal schools for males, the econome is charged with the instruc- 
tion in bookkeeping-; in normal schools for females, with the 
instruction in domestic economy as well. These economes may also 
g-ivc other instruction according to their (jualifications. 

Candidates for the position of steward should hold the brevet .super- 
leur and the cerlificat d'aptitude pedagogique. They should be at least 
21 years of ago, and should have served an apprenticeship of one 
year under the steward of a normal school. 

Instruction in normal schools is given by professors, assistants 
and special teachers appointed by the minister. The direction of 
practice primary schools and ecol.es vuUernelles is confided to a 
member of the normal school faculty. 

* There are also two advanced normal schools {Fontenay-aux-Iioses and Saint Cloud). 
These schools (the former for men, the latter for women) train normal school professors 
and professors of upper primary schools. They are Kratuitous and the course of study 
covers three years. Tlie normal school ( J'ajje-UarpanlUf)'! at Versailles trains directresses 
for the e'coles maternelles. 



124 

Workmen may be employed in normal schools for males to assist 
the professor of manual training. 

In every normal school, receiving- more than 60 pupils, the num- 
ber of professors is fixed at five, not including- the steward and direc- 
tor of the practice school (two for letters, three for the sciences and 
manual training). The number is fixed at four if the school has 60 
pupils or less (two for letters, two for the sciences and manual 
training-). 

The summer vacation in normal schools is seven weeks in length. 
Holidays and other vacations correspond with those in primary 
sc ools. About five hours daily are devoted to meals, recreations 
and physical exercises, and eight hours to sleep. 

Students. 
The number of students each normal school may receive is fixed 
annually by the rector with the advice of the department council. 
Candidates are : 

1. To be between 16 and 18 years of age ; 

2. To hold the brevet elementaire ; 

3. To place themselves under bond to serve 10 years in public 
instruction ; 

4. To be in a satisfactory physical condition. 

The rector has authority to admit candidates more than 18 years 
of age. 

The examination for admission is held before a commission 
appointed by the rector. The academy inspector is president of 
this commission. More than two trials are not authorized. 

Candidates must submit birth certificate and biographic sketch. 
They are examined as to i^hysical condition by the normal school 
physician. 

Examinations for admission are both oral and written, including, — 

1. An exercise in dictation of about twenty lines. The punctuation 
is not dictated, but candidates are allowed ten minutes in Avhich to 
revise their work. 

2. An exercise in penmanship (hdlarde, ronde, cursive, coarse, 
medium, fine). Three-quarters of an hour are g-iven to this work. 

3. A simple exercise in French composition (two hours). 

4. The solution of one or more problems in arithmetic with expla- 
nation of processes (two hours). 

5. An easy exercise in drawing (one and one-half hours). 

6. Questions on the French language, arithmetic and the metric 
system, the history and geography of France, notions of general 



125 

g-eograpliy, elementary notions of the physical and natural sciences 
(at least half an hour is devoted to each subject). 

7. Abstracts of two lessons given by the professors on two sub- 
jects (one literary, the other scientific). These abstracts arc to be 
prepared in half an hour each, 

8. An exercise in music from the advanced course in primary 
schools. 

9. Gymnastic exercises taken from the advanced course in primary 
schools; also, for the males, military exercises; for the females, 
needlework. 

The examinations are divided into two parts. Only those candi- 
dates who succeed in passing the first part satisfactorily are 
admitted to the second. During the second series of tests, 
which are not to occupy more than one week, candidates are 
lodged and fed at the normal schools at the expense of their 
families. 

Students leaving the normal schools voluntarily or excluded 
therefrom or breaking the engagement to serve 10 years in public 
instruction, must restore the cost of board, washing and books. 
Dispensations may bo granted, however, by the minister on the 
recommendation of the rector and with the advice of professors and 
academy inspector. 

Every normal graduate receives, when first called to a post of 
duty, an indemnity of twenty dollars. 

Normal graduates are entitled to the first vacancies in public 
schools in accordance with their certificates of capacity. 

Normal students have every opportunity for their religious 
duties. 

The only punishments which are authorized are : 

1. Detention within the school buildings. 

2. Warning, pronounced by the director. 

3. Public reprimand, pronounced according to the gravity of the 
ofi'ense by the director or by the academy inspector. 

4. Suspension for a period not exceeding 15 days pronounced 
by the rector on the report of the academy inspector, and with the 
advice of the administrative council.* 

5. Expulsion, pronounced by the minister on the recommendation 
of the rector. 

* An admiaistrative council, appointed for three years, and composed of the academy 
inspector as president, six members named by the rector, and two counseiUers ge'neraux, 
watches over the material interests of each normal school. 



126 

COURSE OF STUDY IN PRIMA.RY NORMA.L SCHOOLS. 

The following' are abbreviated translations of the official time-tables 
and courses of study in primary normal schools for males and 
females, as published January 10, 1889 : 

Normal Schools for Males. 



SUBJECTS. 



Literary instruction: 
Pyschology, morals, pedagogy — 
French language and literature... 

History and civics 

Geography 

Penmanship 

Modern languages 

Total 

Scientific instruction: 

Mathematics 

Physics and chemistry 

Natural sciences and hygiene 

Drawing and modeling 

Theoretic agriculture 

Total 

Manual and agricultural training 
Military and gymnastic exercises, 
Music 



HouKS PEE Week. 



First 


Second 


Third 


year. 


year. 


year. 


2 


2 


2 


5 


4 


4 


3 


3 


3 


1 


1 


1 


2 


1 




2 


2 


*2 


15 


■ 13 


12 


3 


4 


4 


2 


2 


3 


1 


1 


tl 


i 


4 


4 




1 


1 


10 


12 


13 


5 


5 


5 


3 


3 


3 


2 


2 


2 



*In addition to the two hours, one hour weekly is devoted to conversational exercitses 
in the language studied. „ ■ 

+ Hygiene and geology in the third year occupy together one hour weekly. Hygiene — 
twenty lessons. 

Normal Schools for Females. 



SUBJECTS. 



Literary instruction: 
Psychology, morals, pedagogy . . 
French language and literature 

History and civics 

Geography 

Penmanship 

Modern languages 



Total . 



Si'ientiflc instruction: 

Mathematics 

Physics 

Chemistry 

Natural sciences and hygiene 

Domestic economy 

Drawing 



Total. 



Needlework 

Household duties and work in gaiden 

Gymnastics 

Music 



HouBS Pee Week. 



First 
year. 



Second 
year. 



Third 
year. 



* In addition to the two hours, one hour weekly is devoted to conversational exercises 
in the language studied. 



127 

NOKMAL SCHOOLS FOE MALES. 
FIRST YEAR. 

I. Elementary Notions of Psychology. 

Object of psychology.— Its relations to pedagogy and morals. General description of 
the human faculties. 

Physical actimty. -Movements, instincts, habits. 

Sensihilitv. — 'Ple&sviTe and pain. Physical sensibility: Needs and appetites. Moral 
sensibility: Family spirit; social and patriotic feelings; sentiment of the true, the 
beautiful, the good ; religious feeling. Passion. 

Intelligence.— ConsQience ; the senses ; natural and acquired perceptions. Memory and 
imagination. Attention, abstraction and generalization ; judgment and reasoning. 
The principles of reason. 

TFtZZ.— Liberty ; habit. 

Conclusions of psychology. —DvLdMty oi human nature. Spirit and body; moral, intel- 
lectual and animal life. 

n. Application of Psychology to Education. 

Physical e(Z«ca<io7i.— General health ; children's games and exercises. 

Intellectual education.— Development of the intellectual faculties at different ages; 
application to various forms of information. Education of the senses; simple obser- 
vation exercises. Training of memory and imagination; judgment and reasoning. 
Different processes; induction; deduction. 

Methods of instruction.— Particular study of processes applicable to each subject. 

Moral education.— 'Na.txir&l diversity in instincts and characters, modification of char- 
acters and formation of habits. Culture of sensibility of child. Education of the will. 
Discipline, rewards and punishments, emulation. 

SECOND YEAR. 
Theoeetic Moeals. Principles. 

Introduction.— Oiiieot of morale. 

Conscience.— Instincti-ve discernment of good and evil, development through education. 

Lihei'ty and responsihUity.-GouAitio'iis. degrees and limitations of responsibility. 

Obligation and didu.-'NatuTe of moral law. Insufficiency of personal interest as basis 
of moral law. Insuflieiency of sentiment. 

Le bien and le deuoir pur.— Dignity of man. 

(Sanctions o/;/iora^e.— Relations between virtue and happiness. Individual sanctions. 
Social sanctions. Supreme sanctions: God and the future life. 

Practical Morals. Applications. 

Personal duties.— Theiv foundation. Self-respect, temperance, prudence, courage, 
respect for truth, promises, etc. 

Family duties.— The family: its moral and social importance. Domestic duties. 

Lieneral social rfit^/es.- Personal relations. Division of social duties. Duties of justice 
and charity. 

Duties of justice.— HeBvect for life, liberty, honor, reputation, property, opinions and 
beliefs of others Sacred character of promises and contracts. 

Civil duties.— The State, foundation of public authority. National sovereignty, its 
limitations (liberty of conscience; personal liberty ; property). Universal suffrage. 
Legislative, executive and judicial powers. 

Duties of citizens : Patriotism, obedience to the laws, taxation, military service, voting, 
education. 



128 

THIRD YEAR. 

A. The first three months are devoted to a, review. 

B. PiiACTiCAL Pedagogy and School Management. 

1. Pedagogic organizalion.— Cl&BBitlG&tion of pupils; programs; time-tables; prepara- 
tion of lessons. School cahiers. Compositions. 

2. y^/'.se/^iZ/n^.— Class order. Rewards and punishments. 

3. Authorities placed over the supervision and direction of public schools; relations 
of the teacher with each. Department regulation of public schools. 

Laws, decrees and circulars, with special study of the organic law of October 30, 1886, 
and of the decree and instructions of January 18, 1887. 

4. Loading pedagogues and their doctrines. Analysis of the most important works. 

C. Notions of Political Economy. 

Production of wealth. Agents of production: material, work, economy, capital, 
property. 

Circulation and distribution of wealth. Exchange, money, credit, wages and interest. 

Consumption of wealth. Productive and unproductive consumption, the <iuestion of 
luxury; expenses of the State; taxation, the budget. 

FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 
1. KeADING AND KeCITATION. 

Classic selections read aloud. Choice selections committed to memory. Supple- 
mentary reading assigned by master or chosen by student under his direction ; written 
or oral analysis of selections. 

2. Grammar and Grammatic Exercises. 

First (/r'a/-.— Rational study of French grammar. 
S(^co7i(i i/car.— Thorough review with essential liistoric notions. 

For each course, oral and written exercises in orthography, grammatic and logical 
analysis. 

3, Composition. 

Firsl year.— OuQ hour. Second and third years.— Two hours. 

4. History of Literature. 

One hour in third year. 

First triitiestre.— Origin. Renaissance.— First half of the 17th century. 

Second tri7nestre.— ^e<.iond half of the I7th century and the 18th to the Revolution. 

Third trimeslre.— The I'Jth century. Review. 

HISTORY AND CIVICS. 

FIRST YEAR. 

History. 

First trimestre.— Ancient history ; Greece and the Orient. 

Second trimestre.— 'Roman history. 

Third trijiiestre.— MU\(i\e ages to 100 years' war. 

N. 7J.— Historic notions of the Orient, Greece and Rome should relate particularly 
customs, beliefs, monuments, aad the part taken in the development of civilization. 
Legends, anecdotes, biographies, descriptions and literary history are very important. 
Time should be reserved at each lesson for selections from great ancient writers, 
modern historians or travelers. 



129 

SECOND YEAR. 

First trimestre.— From the 100 years' war to the Reformation. 
Second trimestre.— From the Reformation to the Revolution of 1688. 
Third trimestre.— Viom. the Revolution of 1688 to the French Revolution. 
N. B.— The most important events, inventions and discoveries. 

THIRD YEAR. 

First trimestre.- The Revolution and the Consulate. 

Second trimestre.— The Empire and the Restauration. 

Th ird trimestre.— From 1830 to 1875. Review. 

xV. 7i.— Instruction as in second year, except that one hour aweek for one <rmiesfo-e 
is dovoted to civics. The instruction in civics is most thorough as regards national 
institutions, including the system of primary education. 

GENEEAL GEOGEAPHY. 

FIRST YEAR. 

Elementary notions of cosmography. General study of the earth. Explanation of 
geographic terms. The globe and maps. 

General study of the continents and oceans. Great orographic and hydrographic 
systems. Atmospheric and marine currents. Human races. Eauatorial, tropical and 
polar regions. 

Political geography. Particular study of the principal countries of Asia, Africa, 
America and Oceanica. 

Principal geographic explorations. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Geography of Europe. 

General study of Europe.— Physi.-al description. Particular study of each country 
(France not included): Physical, administrative, agricultural, industrial and commer- 
cial geography. Governments ; religions. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Geography of Erance. 

Physical geography. Boundaries. Orography and hydrography. Historic and 
administrative geography: Ancient and modern divisions. Government (central, 
departmental and communal). Agricultural, industrial and commercial geography. 

Geography of Algeria and of the French colonies. Physical and administrative geo- 
graphy. Agricultural and industrial products. Importation and exportation. 

AEITHMETIC. 

FIRST YEAR. 

Operations with whole numbers. Divisibility by 2, 5, 4, 25, 3, 9, 11. Greatest common 
divisor; least common multiple. Common and decimal fractions. Metric system. 
Ratio and proportion. Simple interest. Discount. Exchange. Partnership. Alliga- 
tion. Short methods in oral and written work. 

SECOND YEAR. 

A. Completion of arithmetic. 

B. Algebra through equations of the first degree. 

THIRD YEAR. 

A. Algebra.— Solution of equations of the second degree with one unknown quantity. 
Applications to arithmetic and geometry. Arithmetic and geometric progressions. 
Logarithms. Compound interest and annuities. 

B. Bookkeepiag.— Single and double entry. Dispositions of the commercial code 
relative to commercial responsibility, 

17 



130 



GEOMETRY. 
FIRST YEAR. 

Two bookH of L(3»i<)ntlre.— Proportional llneH. Hlmilltude. 

SECOND YEAR. 

liOntith of tho circuiiiferonco. Measure of areas, 
rarallol liiieH and iilaneB. Trihedral aneles. 
Measure of volumes. 
Cylinder, cone, sphere. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Summary notions of trlKonometry. 

Construction of Keometrlc plans. Scale. Conventional signs. Surveyor's compaes, 
mariner's comr)ass. 
I'ractioal work and problems In surveyinK. LevellnK. 
iJimensioned plans. Topographic plans and maps. 
Topographic promenades. 

PHYSICS. 
FIRST YEAR. 

Wc'nihtandhvdrdHlaticn.— Direction of weight. Center of gravity. Weights. Balances. 
Spoclllc gravity. Lliiuids in efiuillbrium. Liquid prossnro. Communicating vessels. 
Hydraulic press. Principle of Arciiiniedes. Areometers. Oases. Atmospheric 
pressure. Barometers. Marlotto's law. Manometers. Pneumatic machines. Pumps; 
siphon. Balloons. 

ylrou.si(V;.s.— Propagation of sound. Measure of the velocity of sound in the air, In 
Ihiulds and in solids. Reflexion of sound. (Qualities of sound. 

SECOND YEAR. 

/A'a/.— Dilation. Thermometers. Coefficients of dilation. Common applications. 
(Jonductivity. Applications. Motion in liquids and gases. Marine (nirrents. Winds. 
ClilmnriyH. Ventilation. Changes In the state of bodies. Fusion, solidifloation, disso- 
lution, frystuUizutlon. Vaporization in air and In a vamium. Var>ors. Tension. 
Ilygnjinetry. Clouds and fogs, rain, snow, frost. Evaporation. EI)ullition. Distilla- 
tion. Exi)erimontal notions of calorimotry. Freezing mixtures. Cold produced by 
evaporation. Manufacture of ice. I'rinclpal methods of heating in domestic economy 
aud in industry. Idea of steam engines. Installation and observation of thermometers. 
Maxima and ndnima temperatures. Atmospherh; pressure. Diurnal and annual varia- 
tions. Winds. Weather iudicatlons. Cyclones. Blizzards. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Klpclrii-itv andmaonctism.— Production of electricity. Electric machines. Leydeu jars. 
Atmospheric electricity. Batteries. Electric current. Electric light. Magnets. Com- 
passes. Galvanometer. Magnetic induction. Electro-magnet. General idea of the 
elei'tric telegraph. Induction. Telephone. 

op<(c.s.— Propagation of light. Umbra and penumbra. Properties of plane and spheric 
mirrors established experimentally. Ilefraction. Prisms. Uellection; miraqc. Prop- 
erties of lenses, established experimentally. Magnifying glass. Microscope. Tele- 
s(!ope. Decoraposiiion and rocomposition of light. Speutni. Bain-bow. Badiant heat. 

I'liyaiial mccliauicii. — Mot\on. Inertia. Forces. Laws of the fall of bodies. Atwood's 
machine. Mass. Measure of force. Simple machines. Lever. Pulley. Motive power. 
Kosistance. Notions of the equivalence of mechanic work and heat. 



131 

CHEMISTRY. 
FIEST.YEAE. 

Analysis and synthesis of water. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Analysis of air. Nitrogen. 
General notions of chemical combustion. Disengaged heat. Change of properties. 
Principles of nomenclature and of chemical notation. Acids. Bases. Oxides of nitro- 
gen. Nitric acid. Ammonia. Laws of chemical combinations. Chlorine. Hydro- 
chloric acid. Iodine. Sulphur. Sulphuric acid. Sulphurous acid. Hydrosulphuric 
acid. Phosphorus. Phosphoric acid. Phosphoretted hydrogen. Carbon. Carbonic 
oxides. Carbonic acid. Silicic acid. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Metals. Alloys. Salts. Notions of equivalents. Potassium and sodium. Potash. 
Soda. Sea salt. Artificial salt. Calcium and magnesium. Lime ; carbonate, sulphate, 
phosphate. Aluminum. Alumina. Alum. Silicates, clays, pottery and glass, lime, 
mortars, cements. Iron, zinc. Oxides, sulphates, carbonates. Notions of metallurgy. 
Tin, copper, lead. Oxides, sulphates and carbonates. Mercury, silver, gold, platinum 

THIRD YEAR. 

Summary notions of elementary analysis and synthesis of organic substances. The 
classification of these substances: 

Hydro-carbon. Alcohol. Ether. Glycerine. Glucose. Dextrine. Phenol. Acids. 
Alkalies. Albumen. Gelatine. Preservation of woods, hides and foods. 

THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND HYGIENE. 

FIRST YEAR. 

a. The description of the structure of the organs of plants. 

h. Functions of nutrition, fecundation and germination. 

c. Division of plants into dicotyledonous, monocotyledonous, and acotyledonous. 

Special study of useful and poisonous plants. 

SECOND YEAR. 
Zoology. 

o. Anatomy and physiology of man. 
h. Classification of animals. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Geology. 

General study of the principal geologic phenomena of the present epoch. 

Utilization thereof in the explanation of geologic phenomena of former periods. 

Rocks. Geologic forces. Historic geology. 

jV. /J.— Though the instruction in botany is placed in the first year of the course, 
nevertheless the students of the second and third years as well as those of the first are 
to make frequent botanic excursions under the direction of the professor. 

Hygiene. 

Water. Air. Foods. Contagious diseases. Excrements. Sanitary conditions of the 
household. Diseases contracted at school. Vaccination and revaccination. Hygiene 
In infancy. Diseases of animals. 



1H2 

MODEEN LANGUAGES. 

FIRST YEAR 

Professors are not to lose sight of the fact that Instruction in modern languages is for 
conversational purposes. 
Simultaneous exercises in reading, writing and orthography. 
Lists of words, exercises in conversation on these words. 
Memory exercises, short and easy poems. 
Pronunciation is to receive careful attention. 
Instruction in grammar is to be practical in character. 
Simple exercises in reading. Explanation of selections read. 
Grammatic {hemes. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Continuation of the same method and exercises. 
Lists of words and conversation on these words. 
Memory exercises. Short and easy selections in prose and poetry. 
Eeading of choice selections. Conversation on selections read. 
Continuation of grammar. Give a practical character to this instruction. 
Short compositions on simple subjects. Letters. 

Eead in German Hebel's Schatzkastlein, Grimm's popular stories; in English, one of 
the readers and Miss Edgeworth's stories. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Continuation of the same method and exercises. 

Oral and written exercises on lists of words. 

Memory exercises: Selections chosen from the principal authors. 

Exercises in reading. 

Exercises in calculation in the foreign tongue. 

Conversations on geography, travels and subjects connected with every-day life. 

Review of the grammar. 

Composition: Letters, descriptions, simple narratives. 

Reading : Schiller's Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Niederlande and Geschichte 
des dreissigjahrigen Kriegs; Franklin's Autobiography; Miss Corner's History of 
England. 

Songs in the foreign tongue throughout the course. 

Extracts from foreign pedagogic journals. 

AGPJCULTUKE. 
SECOND YEAR. 

a. Vegetable growth.— Study of the soil and moans of modifying its chemical composi- 
tion and physical properties; grains, leguminous plants, fodder, industrial plants. 
h. Alimentation.— Domestic animals. 
c. Rural economy and notions of agricultural accounts. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Horticulture. 

a. General notions. 
h. Culture of trees.— Grafting. 
c. The kitchen-garden. 

The professor should dwell [particularly on the horticultural conditions of the 
locality. 



133 



DEAWING. 
FIE8T YEAR. 

Imitative Drawing. 

The course of study closely resembles that of upper primary schools. 

Geometeig Drawing. 

The course of study is similar to that in upper primary schools. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Review with development as in upper primary schools. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Review of the work of the second year with development as in the upper primary 
schools. 

N. B.— The development of the course of the upper primary schools is in the line of 
fitting the normal school students to teach the several divisions of the subject. 

VOCAL AND INSTKUMENTAL MUSIC. 
FIRST YEAR. 

Elementary principles of music. Pronunciation and diction. Use of the voice. 
Respiration. Classification of voices. Exercises in major and minor scales. 
Easy exercises in dictation. Execution of simple selections. 
Elementary exercises on the organ or piano. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Review with development. 

Oral and written exercises in major and minor scales in the keys of sol and /a. 

Execution of selections in several parts. 

Continuation of the exercises on the organ or piano. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Execution of choral music. 

Elementary study of accompaniments and of harmony in connection with school 
songs. 
Continuation of the exercises on organ or piano. 
Notions of the history of music and of the principal master-pieces in music. 

GYMNASTICS AND MILITAEY EXEKCISES. 
FIRST YEAR. 

Gymnastics. 

Games. Promenades. Evolutions. Lessons in French boxing, stick and cane exer- 
cises. Fencing. 
Exercises with gymnastic apparatus. Swimming.. 

Military Exercises. 

Formation of the section. Alignments. Marches, Countermarches. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Gymnastics. 

Review with development. Rowing. 



134 

Military Exercises. 

Formation In open order. Deploying. Rallying. Mustering. 
Target practice. 

THIED YEAK. 

Gymnastics. 

Review and completion of the preceding exercises and methodic preparation for 
Instruction in gymnastics in lower primary schools. 

Military Exercises. 

School of the soldier with arms. Target practice. Study of the gun, model 1874. 



NOEMAL SCHOOLS FOR FEMALES. 

1. Psychology. Pedagogy. Morals. 

The program Is the same as in the normal schools for males, except that the pro- 
fessor Is to dwell particularly on the duties of the wife, the mother and the housekeeper. 

2. French Language. 

The same program as in normal schools for males. 

3. History. 

The same program as in normal schools for males. 

HISTORY AND CIVICS. 
THIED YEAE. 

The same program as in normal schools for males with less development. 

Geography. 

The same program as in normal schools for males. 

Mathematics, 

The course Includes arithmetic, plane geometry, and bookkeeping, with less develop- 
ment than in normal schools for males. 

Physics and Chemistry. 

The course is simpler than that In normal schools for males. 
Instruction Is essentially experimental and practical. 

Natural Sciences. 

In botany, zoology and hygiene the courses are the same as those in normal schools 
for males. 
The course In geology is simplified. 

Domestic Economy. 
THIED YEAE. 

The household.— Care of dwelling and furniture. Care of clothing and linen. 
Washing and ironing. Alimentation. Nutritive qualtitles of different foods. House- 
hold accounts. 

N. B.— The students are to be exercised as much as possible in the preparation of food 
and In other household duties. 



135 

Modern Languages. 

The same program as that in normal schools for males. 

Needlework. 

FIRST YEAR. 

The making and care of garments. 

The making of various articles of clothing for men, women and children by hand, or 
with the sewing machine. 

SECOND YEAR. 
Manner of taking measurements. 
The study of patterns. 
The drawing of patterns and the cutting of articles of clothing therefrom. 

THIRD YEAR. 

Review and completion of the first and second years. 

Drawing. 

The course is very similar to that in normal schools *->»• males except that the appli- 
cations to a certain extent are those adapted to work which is generally done by women. 

Singing and Instrumental Music. 

The same program as that in the normal schools for males. 

Gymnastics. 

The course of study is similar to that of normal schools for males with the omission 
of certain exercises. 

CONCLUSION. 

Several authorities have asserted that the French admit the 
superiority of Prussian schools, because French parents have sent 
their children in many cases to Prussian secondary schools. This 
arg-ument had force as far as secondary schools were concerned, but 
it should have been restricted to these schools. 

If France continues to make as much progress in her secondary 
schools as she has made during the joast few years, the comparison 
with those of her rival will be as favorable as in the case of elemen- 
tary schools. At present she is endeavoring to avoid the objections 
which have been urged by Germans against their own system of 
secondary instruction, and seems to be working along better and 
more practical lines, though it must not be overlooked that this 
work in France is yet in its infancy. 

Schools, like prophets, are often not without honor save in their 
own country. We have many examples of the truth of this state- 
ment. Parents in New York often send their children away to be 
educated, when they would receive better instruction in the public 
schools at home. In the same way German parents send their 
children to France and French children are sent to Germany, 



136 

thoug'h in these cases the acquisition of a modern language is often 
the principal reason. 

We must also bear in mind the fact that the reputation of Prussian 
schools has been established for more than half a century, while the 
French system of public instruction dates almost entirely from the 
Franco-Prussian war, and in a large measure from 1882. The 
schools of Prussia have been perfected gradually from 1813, the date 
of the completion of the reorganization of the system of education. 

With this fact in mind we do not expect to find such a high 
degree of perfection in the French as in the Prussian schools, and 
are indeed surprised that comparisons, based on results attained in 
so short a time are so favorable. 

There is no system of public instruction which is not weakened 
by poor schools. I have heard lessons in technical grammar in 
Kindergarten in Paris, and I have visited second and third rate 
schools in Germany. When pupils have expressed surprise that as 
an American I was neither red nor black, and asked what language 
was generally spoken in the United States, I have not drawn 
general conclusions as to faulty methods of instruction because my 
other visits had convinced me that Prussian and French elementR^v 
schools have attained uniform degrees of excellence while oiu" 
model elementary schools are exceptions to the rule. 

It has been stated by prominent authorities that the French 
or Prussian child of 12 is about two years in advance of the 
American of the same age. It is most unjust to make such 
comparisons unless they are accompanied by explanations. It is 
not because the French or Prussian jDupils have greater natural 
capacity than the American, but simply because from their sixth or 
seventh year of age they have been forced to attend school regularly 
for at least 40 weeks annually, and have been protected in school as 
far as possible from the imposition of bad work. 

In France and in Prussia the laws fix a minimum of instruction 
for elementary schools, and surround the schools with all safe- 
guards. ' The result is that the general standard of the work accom- 
plished apxjroaches that maintained in our best elementary schools. 

In New York the laws do not prescribe the work for elementary 
schools. Each school is practically a law unto itself as to what 
shall be pursued and how. Furthermore, the legal school year is 
about ten weeks shorter than in Prussia and France, and attendance 
is irregular. The result is that our model elementary schools are 
exceptions to the rule. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS i 



022 118 878 



